Christopher Cullis, Ph.D. – Frances Hobart Herrick Professor of Biology at Case Western Reserve University

Friday February 22, 2008
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall – Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University

You may never have heard of the Bambara bean, marama tuber, or cowpea seeds. Yet Case Western Reserve students in Professor Cullis’ biotechnology lab have been testing these wild, native, and hardy plants to see if they have the potential to become domesticated crops. They have done lab research to find DNA markers, while also connecting with universities from southern Africa through both those researchers visiting our campus and a series of videoconferences.

International collaborations to overcome food shortages have failed in a variety of ways. Sometimes foreign aid has offered food directly, and so made local agriculture unprofitable. Sometimes it has promoted cultivation of crops that are not suited to the local ecology.
Come join Professor Cullis, Frances Hobart Herrick Professor of Biology, to discuss our contribution to a different approach, a remarkable international collaboration in search of sustainable agriculture.

The Friday Lunch is a brown-bag event open to all.  Cookies and some beverages are provided.

The remainder of this e-mail reports what we know about the schedule for the rest of the semester. We will be sending out announcements each week. If you would prefer not to receive the announcements, please inform Dr. Andrew Lucker, Associate Director of the Center for Policy Studies, by e-mail (andrew.lucker@case.edu).

About Our Guest

Dr. Chris Cullis is interested in the mechanisms by which DNA within the cell can change rapidly, particularly in response to external stimuli. The model systems, all plant based, that are the basis for these investigations are the heritable mutations in flax in response to the external environment and the appearance somaclonal mutations after plants have been taken through a cycle of tissue culture and regeneration.

Flax has been shown to be especially prone to genomic destabilization by the external growing environment. Specific labile regions of the genome have been identified, using genomic subtraction methods, and their characteristics are being described to gain an insight into the mechanisms by which these variants are generated. One particular labile region involves the site-specific insertion of a novel sequence that is assembled in response to the environmental growth conditions, and confers an adaptive advantage under certain growth conditions.

The understanding of somaclonal variation has two purposes:

• To determine if a labuile subset of the genome is also identifiable that is modified during tissue culture.
• To develop markers to monitor the appearance of somaclonal variants to be used in the tissue culture industry for quality control of in vitro plants.

Friday Lunch Parking News

On February 22 no parking will be available in the Visitor Information Center Lot (located between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel) because there is a full Case Western Reserve University Board of Trustees meeting.

Part Time Election Positions Available

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is looking for some part time help for the March 4th Ohio primary. There are two positions available, ballot drop off assistant and ballot drop off captain. For more information click here. (pdf)

Friday Lunch and Other Public Affairs Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

February 29: Robin Dubin, Associate Professor of Economics at Case Western Reserve University, will discuss, “The Real Estate Meltdown.”

March 7: Peter J. Whitehouse MD PhD. Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Science. “The Myth of Alzheimers.”

March 21: J. Adin “Jay” Mann, Professor of Chemical Engineering: “Peak Oil.”

April 4: Jerry Floersch PhD, LISW, Associate Professor in MSASS, “The Psychosocial and Sociocultural Dimensions of Prescribing Psychiatric Medication to Adolescents.”

April 18: Megan Whalen Turner fiction writer for young adults and author of, Instead Of Three Wishes, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia; Anne Ursu is the author of the novels Spilling Clarence and The Disapparation of James, Joe White Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Chair, Department if Political Science, Case Western Reserve University, will discuss, “Moral Dilemmas in Politics and Fiction.”

The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of
Crawford Hall.  Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made.  On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion.

Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building.  The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch.  On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.

For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.