IAS Distinguished Lecture - The Nervous System Shaped by Evolution, and Its Limits - The Evolutionary Cost of Neurodegeneration

Abstract

The human nervous system is one of evolution’s most remarkable achievements - an architecture refined to maximize speed, adaptability, and survival. Yet every evolutionary gain carries a cost. Neurodegenerative diseases are not merely failures of biology; they are the shadow cast by evolutionary success.

Neurodegeneration can be understood through the lens of evolutionary trade-offs, with particular emphasis on biological constraints - programs selected for early-life advantage that persist across the lifespan and impose unavoidable limitations in later years. In long-lived, post-mitotic neurons, systems governing proteostasis, stress-response signaling, metabolism, and immune surveillance must operate continuously for decades. Over time, their buffering capacity erodes, not because of flawed design, but because resilience is finite within fixed biological limits.

Building on a body of work developed over time and currently evolving in our clinic and laboratory, the speaker will illustrate how these constraints manifest across neurodegenerative contexts. Genes commonly linked to motor and cognitive degeneration, including TDP-43, FUS, Annexin A11, SOD1, and NEK1, are presented not as disease-specific culprits, but as integral components of conserved biological programs. These pathways - central to RNA regulation, cellular stress adaptation, proteostasis, and primary cilia-mediated sensing-support optimal neural function early in life while accumulating burden with aging.

The latter portion of the lecture highlights microglia as pivotal regulators of system-level resilience. Microglia-based experimental models, patient-derived data, and emerging biomarker profiles show how shifts in glial states track the transition from adaptation to degeneration. Together, these observations support a therapeutic vision that recognizes biological constraints—one that seeks not to oppose evolution’s design but to preserve function by tuning, buffering, and extending resilience where elimination is neither feasible nor biologically coherent.
 

About the Speaker

Prof. Seung H. KIM is a Professor of Neurology and serves as the Director of the ALS Clinic and Stem Cell Therapy Center at Hanyang University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea. He currently serves as the President of the Korean Neurological Association.

Prof. Kim is actively engaged in translational research on neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on developing stratified and precision medicine tailored to the unique genetic backgrounds of Korean and other Asian populations. He pioneered a therapeutic strategy using autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) for ALS, which was approved as an orphan drug by the Korean NIH and implemented in clinical practice.

In recognition of his contributions, he received the 2016 Secret of Life Award from the Catholic Foundation, as well as national honors from the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He is a member of both the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the National Academy of Medicine of Korea. He also leads the Korean Dementia Platform Project, which aims to identify and validate immune-inflammatory biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases.

For Attendees' Attention

Seating is on a first come, first served basis.