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Renowned neuroscientist and University of Florida alumnus Fred H. Gage, Ph.D., returned to campus recently to deliver the William G. Luttge Lectureship in Neuroscience.

Gage, who received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology in 1972, is a professor and researcher in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.

His May 4 lecture, titled 鈥淣euronal Plasticity and Genomic Diversity,鈥� was delivered to a standing-room crowd of more than 100 people at the .

The lecture is held each year in honor of William G. 鈥淏ill鈥� Luttge, the founder of the McKnight Brain Institute. Luttge, who established one of the nation鈥檚 first neuroscience programs at UF, died in March 2012. The lectureship is funded by a donation from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation.

Gage鈥檚 lecture focused on the evolutionary impact of mobile DNA, which can cause a host of genetic variations and mutations by changing places in the genome. More broadly, mobile DNA may influence normal brain function, contribute to some neurological disorders and have a role in genome evolution.

鈥淵ou are unique,鈥� Gage said. 鈥淣ot only are you a product of your genes and your environment, you鈥檙e also a product of chance. That chance is driven by these mobile elements that are occurring at various levels in your body.鈥�

Mobile DNA also may have played a significant role in the evolutionary process that differentiates humans from primates, Gage said. As their evolutionary paths diverged millions of years ago, primates retained and grew their genetic diversity while humans did so to a lesser degree.

That led Gage to a big idea, which he said remains speculative: Over time, humans have found ways to compensate for a relative lack of genetic diversity that might otherwise threaten their long-term survival. Humans came to rely on so-called 鈥渃ultural evolution鈥� rather than biological evolution, Gage said.

Developing new technologies such as medicine is one way that humans have adjusted culturally rather than biologically, he said.

鈥淲e have viruses that are acting on our human population, so we build hospitals. We do things culturally that allow us to adapt,鈥� he said.

Humans are more dependent than ever on their ability to adapt to their surroundings through cultural rather than biological evolution, he said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e stepping aside from using biological evolution as a means for evolving our species,鈥� he said.

Delivering the lecture also gave Gage the chance to return to his scientific roots. The summer after his freshman year, Gage started working in a UF research lab. He spent the next three years studying electrophysiology and the hippocampus, a part of the brain that controls memory formation and spatial navigation.

Gage went on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. At the Salk Institute, Gage and his colleagues found that an adult brain can produce new neurons, a groundbreaking discovery that reversed long-standing scientific doctrine.

Other work by Gage and his Salk Institute colleagues includes studying the genetic origins of Rett syndrome, a rare neurological condition that is considered one of the autism spectrum disorders.

, chair of the at the , introduced Gage by noting 鈥渁n incredible record of accomplishments鈥� that includes writing more than 730 research articles and book chapters. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He also served a term as president of the Society for Neuroscience, the world鈥檚 largest group of brain and nervous system researchers and physicians.

In addition to his work on neurogenesis, Gage is well-known for being part of a group of scientists who found that the brain contains many genetically distinct neurons, said , a distinguished professor in the . Gage has had substantial accomplishments because he is 鈥渁 great thinker who approaches scientific questions and issues differently than many other people in the field,鈥� Moroz said.