Sackler Institute _{for Developmental Psychobiology}

The tenth annual John Merck Fund Summer Institute on the Biology of Developmental Disabilities will be held the week of June 21-25, 2010 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. This year’s week-long course will focus on important developments in evolutionary biology that have direct implications for how we conceptualize the nature and treatment of developmental disorders. Themes of the course will include development from an evolutionary and societal context, phenotyping, and evolution-based disease and animal models. Participants will benefit from lectures given by internationally renowned scientists and will participate in didactic interactions with the speakers on each methodology described. The institute is geared toward graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and provides small travel stipends, room, and partial board for attendees.

ALL CONTACT REGARDING THE COURSE SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO ERIKA RUBERRY VIA EMAIL at err2005@med.cornell.edu.

Except for opening day, all lectures will take place in the dining room of Hans Bethe House on west campus.

MONDAY, JUNE 21: OPENING DAY
5:00 pm	Opening reception and dinner at AD White House (East Avenue, on campus).
7:00 pm	BJ Casey, PhD Sackler Professor of Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College Historical overview of Summer Institute and The John Merck Fund
7:15 pm	Barbara Finlay, PhD William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Cornell University Overview of 2010 Summer Institute focus and themes
7:30 pm	Student Introductions
TUESDAY, JUNE 22: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION AND HOW THEY INFORM MODELS OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
9:00 am	Barbara Finlay, PhD Cornell University Evolution evolving: Evo-devo, robust and strategic development, and what, if anything, is special about humans?
10:30 am	Georg Striedter, PhD UC Irvine Why the history of the brain informs you about the development of the brain
12:00 pm	Lunch on your own
	PHENOTYPING CORE FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITES
2:00 pm	Jacqueline N. Crawley, PhD NIMH Autism-like behavioral phenotypes in genetically modified mice
3:30 pm	Cathy Lord, PhD University of Michigan Behavioral diagnostics of autism
6:00 pm	Informal dinner and activities with faculty
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23: CHOOSING YOUR PHENOTYPE IN THE CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT, SOCIETY AND EVOLUTION
9:00 am	Daniel Nettle, PhD Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Newcastle University Social class and adolescence through an evolutionary lens
10:30 am	BJ Casey, PhD Sackler Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College The neurobiology of adolescence in society and evolution
12:00 pm	Lunch on your own
	DISEASE AND ANIMAL MODELS FROM AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
2:00 pm	Matthew C. Keller, PhD University of Colorado, Boulder An evolutionary genetic framework for heritable disorders
3:30 pm	Kim Bard, PhD University of Portsmouth, UK Development of emotion and emotional communication in “the chimpanzee” and “the human”
THURSDAY, JUNE 24: HUMAN SOCIETY AS AN EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITION
9:00 am	Stephanie Preston, PhD University of Michigan Fools rush in: The ultimate and proximate bases of active altruism
10:30 am	Michael Anderson, PhD Franklin & Marshall College Neural re-use as a fundamental organizational principle of the brain
12:00 pm	Lunch on your own
	GENETICS: PROMISES AND LIMITATIONS
2:00 pm	Andrew Clark, PhD Cornell University Genomics of the evolutionary process
	Francis Lee, MD, PhD Weill Cornell Medical College From human imaging to mouse genetics
	Charles Glatt, MD, PhD Weill Cornell Medical College Bottoms-up: working up the phenotypic ladder from molecule to disorder
5:00 pm	Group picture, gala and debate at Carriage House
FRIDAY, JUNE 25: CLOSING ADDRESS
9:30 am	Susan Bookheimer, PhD Joaquin Fuster Professor, UCLA Social communication in autism: genes, brain and behavior
11:00 am	Closing remarks and course evaluations