Program -- Challenges in Biology -- 1:00PM Monday Oct 20, 2008 -- Davis Auditorium, Columbia University

A series of nomadic / peripatetic lectures in New York by distinguished lecturers.

1:00 PM Introduction and Welcome – Professor Arthur Palmer, Columbia

1:10 PM Scientific Introduction, Chairman, Professor Robert Darnell, Rockefeller University

1:20 PM Professor David Ron, NYU Medical Center, " A physiological perspective on the cellular response to unfolded protein load "

2:20 PM Professor Robert Singer, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, " Watching Messenger RNA in Action "

3:20 PM Coffee Break

3:40 PM Professor Joachim Frank, Columbia University, " Toward a mechanistic understanding of protein synthesis in the cell "

4:40 - 5:30 PM Reception

Speaker Biosketches:

David Ron, MD, PhD directs a research laboratory at Molecular Pathogenesis Program of the Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine of the Skirball Institute. He is professor of Medicine and Julius Raynes professor of Cell Biology at New York University’s School of Medicine. He has board certifications in Endocrinology and Metabolism as well as in Internal Medicine. His research focuses on malfolded proteins and cellular degeneration and human disease.

http://saturn.med.nyu.edu/research/mp/ronlab/index.html

Robert H Singer, PhD is professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University and Co-Chair of Anatomy and Structural Biology. He uses fluorescent labels in both fixed and living cells to study RNA expression and movement in single cells. He also develops microscopy techniques and digital image analysis algorithms to visualize many RNAs simultaneously.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/franklab

Sponsored by Columbia University and the New York Structural Biology Center

Organized with Profs. John Hunt and Arthur G. Palmer III.