Transgenerational Memory

Dr. Rechavi is a full professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. His mission is “to challenge fundamental long-held dogmas.” He provided the first direct evidence that an acquired trait can be inherited, and worked to elucidate the mechanisms and rules of RNA–mediated transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Using C. elegans nematodes, simple yet powerful model organisms, he discovered that nematode brains can control the behavior of the progeny, and identified a simple neuronal circuit–level mechanism that explains economic irrationality. Aside from his work on epigenetics, Dr. Rechavi utilized genome sequencing of ancient DNA to “piece together” fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, demonstrated that Toxoplasma parasites can be genetically engineered to deliver drugs to the nervous system, and found a mechanism that dramatically delays forgetting. He is a European Research Council (ERC) Fellow and has been awarded many prestigious prizes, including the Polymath Award (awarded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s foundation, Schmidt Science), the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists (awarded by the New York Academy of Science and the Israel Academy of Science), the Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research, the Krill Prize of the Wolf Foundation for Excellence in Scientific Research, the Alon Fellowship, the F.I.R.S.T (Bikura) Fellowship, and the Gruss Lipper Postdoctoral Fellowship. He won multiple teaching awards, is a member of the Israel Young Academy and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and was selected as one of the “10 Most Creative People in Israel Under 40” and one of the “40 Most Promising People in Israel Under 40.”

About the Lecture

In C. elegans nematodes, dedicated machinery enables transmission of small RNAs which regulate gene expression across multiple generations, independently of changes to the DNA sequence. I will discuss new insights regarding the underlying mechanisms, and the potential of RNAi inheritance to affect the worms’ fate. Lastly, I will examine how these new findings might affect our view of the process of evolution and the limits of inheritance and provide evidence that transgenerational inheritance of small RNAs is possible even in other, very different organisms.