Biology Seminar Series: Harini Iyer
By: TAMU Biology
Dr. Harini Iyer to Speak on Microglia Biology at Upcoming Seminar
The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Harini Iyer will be the guest speaker at our upcoming seminar on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 4:00 PM in BSBE 115. The event will be hosted by Dr. Alex Keene.
About Dr. Harini Iyer
Dr. Harini Iyer majored in microbiology, which led her to her first foray into scientific research at the AstraZeneca Drug Discovery program. She pursued her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she developed a fascination with planarians and their remarkable regenerative abilities. Her graduate thesis focused on the functions of multiple genes involved in germline stem cell self-renewal and maintenance in planarians and their parasitic cousins, schistosomes.
Dr. Iyer’s interest in regeneration led her to zebrafish, initially to study the remyelination process as a postdoctoral trainee. Her experiments, however, unveiled the intriguing biology of microglia and the importance of lysosomal pathways in these neuroimmune cells. Her postdoctoral research uncovered multiple lysosomal signaling pathways essential for microglia development and function. In 2024, Dr. Iyer began her independent research program at Rice University, where her lab studies the basic cell biology of microglia and their contributions to neurological disorders.
Seminar Title: Illuminating the Cell Biology of Microglia in Development and Neurodegeneration
Abstract
Members of Dr. Iyer’s laboratory seek to decipher the complex interplay between the nervous and immune systems from the perspective of microglia, the sentinel immune cells of the brain. Using zebrafish as a model organism, her team exploits the many experimental advantages of this vertebrate model, such as live imaging, large-scale CRISPR screens, and transgenic tools to visualize microglia in vivo.
Current research projects in Dr. Iyer’s lab encompass two distinct aspects of microglial biology. The first focuses on the cell biology of microglia, specifically the interactions between the ER, Golgi, and lysosomes in these critical phagocytic and innate immune cells. The second adopts a CRISPR-based screening approach to define the functions of genes enriched in microglia that are mutated in neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental, and neuropsychiatric disorders. By leveraging the wealth of genomic resources available for these diseases, Dr. Iyer’s research aims to better understand microglia biology and function in development and disease.
Event Details:
- Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
- Time: 4:00 PM
- Location: BSBE 115
- Host: Dr. Alex Keene
