Syngap Research Fund Incorporated

SynGAP Research Fund will host the Second annual SynGAP1 Roundtable on December 6th at 8:00 – 9:30 a.m. at the Hilton Hotel in Baltimore, MD. Breakfast will be provided and doors open at 7:30.

The purpose of the SynGAP1 Roundtable is for scientists and medical professionals to learn about and discuss the progress of SynGAP1 research and its associated clinical impact. Based on your clinical experience and/or the published literature, you have discussed or shown interest in the SynGAP1 protein.

SRF 2nd Annual SynGAP Roundtable
Friday, December 4th, 2020 via Zoom (Register here: http://syngap.fund/RT2)
8:00 Mary Kennedy, PhD, CalTech
8:30 Elizabeth Heller, PhD, UPenn
9:00 Gavin Rumbaugh, PhD, Scripps
9:30 Marcelo Coba, PhD, USC
10:00 Elise Brimble MSC, MS, CGC, Ciitizen
10:30 Constance Smith-Hicks, MD PhD, Johns Hopkins
11:00 Alfred George, MD, Northwestern
11:30 Hans Schlecht MD, MMSc, SRF
12:00 J. Michael Graglia, MBA, MA, SRF
12:15 SRF Families Lunch and debrief, register here. Ends at 2.
All times Pacific

Our speakers
Mary Kennedy, PhD is the The Allen and Lenabelle Davis Professor of Biology at Caltech and has spent her career researching the molecular basis of neuron function. In 1999 she co-described SynGAP1 as a major component of the postsynaptic density and has further elucidated its role in synaptic plasticity since then.

Elizabeth Heller, PhD is Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics within the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics of the University of Pennsylvania. Her Laboratory of Neuroepigenetics studies the mechanisms by which epigenome processes affect neuronal gene function and behavior. In addition, she is the aunt of an adorable SynGAP-affected girl, Ruby.

Gavin Rumbaugh, PhD is Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute where the goal of his lab is to understand how synaptic connections contribute to the development and function of the neural circuits of memory and cognition. His lab hopes to develop novel therapeutic strategies to improve brain function in patients with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability.

Marcelo Coba, PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences at the
Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute of the University of Southern California. The long-term goal of his lab is to determine how genetic variants affect synapse function, not individually, but in developmental signaling network. Using a systems biology approach,this lab hopes to define network maps that will allow us to treat patients by their correspondent pathway signatures.

Alfred L. George, Jr., MD is the Magerstadt Professor of Pharmacology; Chair, Department of Pharmacology; and Director, Center for Pharmacogenomics at Northwestern University. His lab has focused on the molecular basis of human disease with emphasis on the ion channels of cardiac function and the genetic epilepsies.

Constance Smith-Hicks, MD PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a child neurologist and research scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute where she is Medical Director for the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, and co-director of the SYNGAP1 clinical programs. Dr. Smith-Hicks’ research team works to understand the process by which neurons are selected to integrate into networks and the effect of imbalance of excitation and inhibition on the ability of neurons to integrate into stable networks.