Xuan Zhuang, assistant professor of biology, will give a seminar titled "Drosophila model & population resource for investigating genetic basis of complex diseases" in CHEM 144 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 21.

There will be refreshments available before the seminar starting at 3:10 p.m. in CHEM 105. The talk is free and open to the public. The seminar will also be available via Zoom for those who would like to attend remotely.

Metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, are complex diseases influenced by various factors, including genetic interactions and environmental factors. Even the same genetic defect can result in diverse phenotypic variability in different human populations with varying genetic backgrounds, as demonstrated in precision medicine. Hence, it is crucial to understand how genetic background, major disease-causing factors and the environment interact to create differential susceptibility to disease.

Drosophila is a well-established model for exploring complex traits and provides powerful tools for dissecting the contributions of both genes and the environment to metabolism. In this talk, Zhuang will introduce a novel design of multi-parental advanced inter-cross populations, a powerful genetic mapping system that her lab developed for studying natural variation in the fruit fly. She will discuss how this resource is being used to decode the genetic architecture of complex traits related to human diabetic disease. 

Zhuang is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the U of A, where she has been serving since 2021. She received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed her postdoctoral research in evolutionary genetics at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on genetic variation of complex traits and diseases, the evolution of genetic novelty and diversity, and molecular mechanisms of new gene evolution. Her research methods involve a combination of experimental and computational approaches, including comparative genomics, molecular evolution and quantitative genetics, in both model and non-model organisms. Zhuang's current research endeavors involve exploiting the vast reservoir of genetic variation found in fruit flies to construct a comprehensive experimental system, enabling analysis of profound genetic background differences to investigate the interactions between metabolic diseases and environmental factors.

Zoom meeting ID: 835 9661 3040
Passcode: 1AnylSem!