Ray White Memorial Symposium

Join us in honoring genetics pioneer Raymond L. White! We have an amazing lineup of speakers. The UCSF IHG Ray White Memorial Symposium will be held on Monday March 31, 2025 from 12-8PM at UCSF Genentech Hall (Atrium and Auditorium), 600 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94158. Guests are to check in using the intercom system at the main East entrance. The security team at the front desk can check each individual in.

For an accurate catering headcount, please register HERE ASAP. Our first two breaks will be held in the Atrium from 12-1PM and 3:15-3:45PM. Reception from 6-8PM will be not far in room RH-502 on the 5th floor of Rock Hall, 1550 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94158.

Ray White’s pioneering work was the foundation for modern human genetics, which has transformed our understanding of virtually every human disease. Ray proposed to develop complete human genome maps using DNA variation as markers for localizing and cloning human disease genes. He played a seminal role in the technical development of these human genetic maps, including collection of the family mapping set universally employed for map development—the first example of a distributed resource enabling broad international collaboration on a biological problem. He pioneered application of this technology to map and identify human disease genes. These included the first molecular confirmation of Knudsen’s tumor suppressor hypothesis, that one “retinoblastoma gene” copy is often lost during tumorigenesis, and the realization that many cancer genes act as tumor suppressors where both copies of the gene must be inactivated. White’s lab mapped and identified many important human disease genes. In addition, Ray also left a legacy in the generation of young scientists and physician scientists that he trained and have gone on to discover genes underlying a broad array of human diseases and normal behaviors.

 

Schedule:

 

Time

Who

Title

Talk Title

Lunch

12:00 pm

 

 

 

Introduction

1:00 pm

Nadav Ahituv, PhD

Director, Institute for Human Genetics, UCSF

 

 

 

Louis Ptáček, MD

Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology, UCSF

 

 

1:15PM

Michael C. Dean, PhD

Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Translational Genomics, NIH NCI/DCEG

From cystic fibrosis to cancer and AIDS-Ray was my genetics professor

 

1:45 pm

David Viskochil, MD, PhD

Chief, Division of Medical Genetics and John C. Carey, MD Endowed Chair in Pediatric Genetics, University of Utah

The NF1 Gene and Beyond

 

2:15 pm

Louis Ptáček, MD

Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology, UCSF

A journey from disease genetics to behavioral genetics

 

2:45 pm

Michael Rosbash, PhD

Peter Gruber Professor of Neuroscience and HHMI Investigator, Brandeis University

Old Challenges and New Opportunities in Circadian Biology

Break

3:15 pm

 

 

 

 

3:45 pm

Dennis Drayna, PhD

Section Chief of Genetics of Communication Disorders, NIDCD

A genetic dissection of a complex neurological disorder

 

4:15 pm

Joanna Groden, PhD

Vice Chancellor For Research and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois Chicago

Cancer Genes: From Mapping to Mechanisms, Models and Therapeutics

Introduction to Keynote Speaker

4:45 pm

Louis Ptáček, MD

Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology, UCSF

 

Keynote Speaker

5:00 pm

Richard Lifton, MD, PhD

President, The Rockefeller University

From Genetics and Genomics to New Therapeutics

Reception in Rock Hall room RH-502

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm