Pasko Rakic, M.D., Ph.D

Pasko Rakic, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Section of Neurobiology and the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience, gave the 71st James Arthur Lecture on the “Evolution of Neocortex: Lessons from Embryoarcheology” at the American Museum of Natural History in the spring of 2001. The objective of Rakic’s research is to better understand the molecular mechanisms that govern cellular events during development of the mammalian brain, including neurogenesis, neuronal migration and synaptogenesis. He emphasized that advances in understanding corticogenesis in the embryo provide insight into how spontaneous gene mutations that regulate the early stages of corticogenesis may have determined the species-specific size and basic organization of the cerebral cortex.