Date: Sunday, September 14, 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Building 9, Lecture Hall 2325
Reception will follow the lecture.
What if the keys to today’s most pressing childhood conditions lie hidden in ancient genomic echoes passed down through generations?
This fall, KAUST is honored to welcome Dr. Anthony P. Monaco, esteemed geneticist and President Emeritus of Tufts University, for our Presidential Lecture. A pioneer in human genetics, Monaco has spent his career at the intersection of biology, evolution, and medicine.
From isolating the gene for Duchenne muscular dystrophy early in his career to leading Tufts into a new era of research, his journey reflects relentless curiosity and scientific discovery.
Diving into the mystery
In his upcoming lecture, “The Genetics of Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders,” Monaco will dive deep into the evolutionary mechanisms that may be shaping a rise in conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and ADHD. Despite major advances in genetic research, much of the heritability behind them remains a mystery.
Monaco’s work points to a compelling frontier: how evolutionary changes in RNA, and their interactions with environmental stress, may influence neurodevelopment across generations.
Drawing on comparative evolutionary genomics, he will explain how ancient RNA sequences such as RN7SL and RN7SK, through complex reverse transcription mechanisms, may insert themselves near critical neurodevelopmental genes — creating a dynamic, multiallelic regulatory system sensitive to environmental shifts.
This timely and thought-provoking lecture, bridging genetics, epigenetics, and environmental science, pushes the boundaries of how we think about inherited health.
About the speaker
A Princeton- and Harvard-trained geneticist whose career includes groundbreaking work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy and leadership roles at Oxford and Tufts, Monaco now focuses on the genetic underpinnings of autism, dyslexia, and language impairment.
This is not just a lecture. It is an invitation to rethink what we know about heredity, mental health, and the fast-changing world in which our children grow up.
Join us for this unforgettable event.
President Sir Edward Byrne AC FMedSci