Nobel Laureate Jack W. Szostak Speaking on BUMC Dec. 18
Jack W. Szostak, PhD, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Howard Hughes Investigator, who together with colleagues was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discovery of how telomeres protect chromosomes, will be speaking on the Boston University Medical Campus on Tuesday, Dec. 18.
His lecture “The Origin of Life and the Emergence of Darwinian Evolution,” will begin at 1:15 p.m. in Keefer Auditorium. A reception will be held in the Wilkins Board Room at 2:30 p.m. All interested faculty, students and staff are invited to attend.
Dr. Szostak’s lab focuses on the chemical and physical processes that facilitated the transition from chemical evolution to biological evolution on the early earth. As a way of exploring these processes, his laboratory is trying to build a synthetic cellular system that undergoes Darwinian evolution.
The lab hopes that these explorations of the chemistry and physics behind the emergence of Darwinian evolution will lead to explanations for some of the universal properties of modern cells, as well as explanations of how modern cells arose from their simpler ancestors. As they explore these fundamental questions they are also on the lookout for chemical or physical phenomena that might have practical utility in biomedical research.
Dr. Szostak is being hosted by Professor James A. Hamilton, Physiology and Biophysics.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics Seminar
Nobel Laureate, Jack W. Szostak, PhD
- Tuesday, Dec. 18
- Lecture, 1:15 p.m., Keefer Auditorium
- Reception, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Wilkins Board Room