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Friday Evening Lecture Series
08/14/09
Lillie Auditorium, 8:00 PM
Porter Lecture - "Touching Green Worms"
Martin Chalfie, Columbia University; 2008 Nobel Laureate
Introduced by John W. Rowe
Lecture Abstract:
The senses that allow us to touch, hear, detect acceleration, and determine body position all respond to mechanical signals. In contrast to senses such as vision, taste, and smell where the cellular components that detect (transduce) the sensory signals are known, the molecular mechanisms underlying the mechanical senses, such as hearing and touch, remain elusive. My lab has used traditional and molecular genetics to identify genes needed for touch sensitivity in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Some of these genes are needed for the development of the touch sensing cells; others are needed for their function. Electrophysiological studies demonstrate that several of the later genes encode proteins that form a channel complex that transduces touch. Much of this research relies on being able to visualize the cells and their proteins. For these purposes Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) has been essential.
Martin Chalfie is the William R Kenan Jr. Professor and Chair of the Department
of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. He was a co-recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP.” Dr. Chalfie received his A.B. in 1969 and his Ph.D. in 1976, both from Harvard University. After postdoctoral research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England, he joined the Columbia University faculty. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Chalfie was awarded the McKnight Neuroscience Development Award in 1991, the NIH MERIT Award in 1999, Brandeis University's Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science in 2006, and the American Society for Cell Biology's E.B. Wilson Medal in 2008. He is the co-author of four U.S. patents and was a speaker at a Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus in 1999 and 2009. Among his numerous extramural activities, he holds the position of Editor-in-Chief of WormBook and is on the editorial boards of Mechanisms of Development and Genome Biology. Dr. Chalfie has been on the advisory boards of WormBase since 2000, of the Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium since 2001, and of the University of Florida's Whitney Laboratory since 2007.
Dr. John W. Rowe will introduce Dr. Chalfie. Dr. Rowe is Chairman of the MBL Board of Trustees and a Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. From 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc, one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations. Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1998 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. He has authored over 200 scientific publications, including a leading textbook of geriatric medicine. Dr. Rowe has received many honors and awards for his research and health policy efforts regarding care of the elderly. He was Director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging and is co-author, with Robert Kahn, Ph.D., of Successful Aging (Pantheon, 1998). Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the MacArthur Foundation’s Initiative on An Aging Society and chairs the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans. Dr. Rowe was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, Dr. Rowe is a former member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Dr. Rowe is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Connecticut.
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