(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) --The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, launching its
Distinguished Lecturer Series, will host California Institute of
Technology biology professor Paul H. Patterson on Jan. 8 at the UC
Davis Cancer Center, 4501 X St., Sacramento.

Patterson will present two lectures -- a technical presentation at 4
p.m. on "Maternal Viral Infection: Window on Neuroimmune Interactions
in Fetal Brain Development and Mental Illness," and a
general-interest discussion at 6:30 p.m. on "Can One Make a Mouse
Model of Autism, and Why Try?" Each presentation will be followed by
a question and answer period. The presentations are free and open to
the public.

Patterson is an internationally recognized researcher known for his
studies of early development and repair of the adult central and
nervous systems. Since joining the Caltech faculty in 1983, he and
his laboratory team have contributed to the discovery of a new family
of cytokines, now termed the neuropoietic cytokines, because of their
action in both the nervous and immune systems. His laboratory is
currently studying cytokine involvement in a new animal model for
autism and possibly schizophrenia. This mouse model is based on
epidemiological findings that maternal viral infection can increase
the likelihood of these disorders in children.

The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, in Sacramento, Calif., was founded
in 1998 as a unique interdisciplinary organization of parents,
community leaders, researchers, clinicians and volunteers to study
and treat autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. More
information about the institute is available on the Web at
http://www.mindinstitute.org/.