Robert Burgess, Principal Investigator of The Jackson Laboratory will present the 43rd Annual James L. O’Leary Lecture, "Mouse Models of Inherited Peripheral Neuropathy: Determining How Housekeeping Genes Cause Cell-type-specific Axon Degeneration."

James L. O'Leary joined the faculty of the Department of Anatomy at Washington University in 1928. In 1948 he joined the faculty of the Department of Neurology, becoming Head of the Department in 1946, remaining until 1971. For many years, neuroscience research at Washington University was conducted by O'Leary and his colleagues. They developed an interdisciplinary and interactive approach to the study of the nervous system that continues today. O'Leary's colleagues, admirers and former students established a fund in 1975 to award a prize each year to a graduate student and/or postdoctoral fellow or resident for excellence in neuroscience research. The winners of the O'Leary Prize are announced at the Annual Symposium on Translational Neuroscience (featuring the George H. Bishop and Hope Center Lectures) each year.