08/18/06

Nuclear Reprogramming by Cell Fusion
Helen M. Blau
Stanford University School of Medicine

Lecture Abstract:

Once a cell becomes specialized for function in a particular tissue, that differentiated state is stable, yet the molecular mechanisms that control the expression of its characteristic repertoire of genes are largely dynamic. Our research is directed at understanding this apparent paradox and elucidating the nature of cell memory and cell plasticity. By perturbing the intracellular or extracellular milieu, we are probing the regulatory networks that determine cell fate and how it can be altered. This knowledge is key to our understanding of normal development and tissue diversification, as well as adult stem cell function for therapeutic applications.

Helen M. Blau is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Professor, the Director of the Baxter Laboratory in Genetic Pharmacology,  and the Director of Gene Therapy Technology at Stanford University School of Medicine.  She received a B.A. from the University of York in England, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.   She completed her postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco.  Dr. Blau accepted the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1978, rising through the ranks of Associate Professor (1986 – 1991), Professor (1991 – 1999), and Chair (1997 – 2002) of the department. She has served on the editorial boards of a number of journals and is currently Associate Editor of The FASEB Journal.  Dr. Blau has been the recipient of many honors and awards over the course of her career, including a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health (1995-2005), Nobel Forum Lecture, Sweden (1995) a FASEB Excellence in Science Award (1999), and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Nijmegen, Holland (2003).  She is an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Harvard University’s Board of Overseer’s.

Gerald Weissmann will interview Dr. Blau.  Dr. Weissmann received his M.D. from New York University (NYU) School of Medicine in 1954 and served post-doctoral fellowships in Biochemistry with Severo Ochoa (NYU) and Cell Biology with Dame Honor Fell (Cambridge). From 1973 to 2000, he served as Director of NYU School of Medicine's Division of Rheumatology and is currently Research Professor of Medicine (Emeritus) and the Director of the Biotechnology Study Center at NYU School of Medicine and is editor-in chief of The FASEB Journal. A former president of the American College of Rheumatology and the Harvey Society, Dr. Weissmann is also a Fellow of the AAAS and the New York Academy of Sciences. He was elected to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome) in 2002. Dr. Weissmann is on the Advisory Board of the Ellison Medical Foundation. He was Co-Founder (with E.C. Whitehead) and a Director of The Liposome Compan from 1982 to 2000. Dr. Weissmann has a longtime association with the MBL. He is a former investigator an instructor in the MBL's Physiology Course and is currently an MBL Trustee in the Class of 2009. Dr. Weissmann has received the Paul Klemperer Medal, the Princeton Liposome Research Award, the Presidential Gold Medal of the American College of Rheumatology, the MBL Centennial Award (with James Wyngaarden and DeWitt Stetten, Jr.), the Gruber Cancer Research award (with Emil Frei, III), and the Alessandro Robecchi International Prize for Rheumatology in 1972. His eight books of essays range from The Woods Hole Cantata (1985) to Galileo's Gout (in press 2007).