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Friday Evening Lecture Series
08/13/10
Lillie Auditorium, 8:00 PM
"Telomere Biology in Aging and Cancer"
Woodring E. Wright, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Introduction by Gerald Weissmann
Lecture Abstract:
Telomeres form the caps that protect the ends of the chromosomes from being degraded or fused to each other. Because of the mechanism by which DNA is copied, the replication machinery cannot function all the way to the ends of our liner chromosomes and it fails to copy the very end of the telomere. Reproductive cells and some stem cells express the enzyme telomerase, which is able to add DNA to the telomeres to compensate for this shortening and to maintain telomere length. This enzyme is turned off in most tissues during development. As a consequence, every time a normal cell divides its telomeres become shorter, and this provides a counting mechanism that limits the ability of normal cells to divide—called replicative aging. Restoring telomerase to normal cells allowed them to become immortal. Replicative aging is thought to be a tumor suppression mechanism, since by limiting the number of available cell divisions it prevents pre-malignant cells from dividing enough times to accumulate the many different mutations it takes to form a tumor. Most cancer cells express telomerase, supporting the idea that cells have to overcome the limits of replicative aging in order to become malignant, and inhibiting telomerase in tumor cells results in reestablishing the counting mechanism, so that the tumor cells become mortal and eventually die. Clinical Phase I trials of telomerase inhibitors for cancer therapy are now in progress. Limiting cell divisions as a tumor protection mechanism ultimately can effect tissue regenerative capacity. Several age-associated diseases are due to mutations in telomerase components that cause premature telomere shortening. The use of immortalized cells for regenerative medicine and the comparative biology of telomeres and replicative aging will also be discussed.
Dr. Woodring E. Wright is the Southland Financial Corporation Distinguished Chair in Geriatrics and a professor at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Southwestern Medical School. Known for his ability to develop new techniques and approaches in the field, Dr. Wright studies the role of telomeres in cancer and aging. His current work involves the structure of telomeres, the use of immortalized cells for regenerative medicine, and the comparative biology of telomeres and replicative aging. His studies have also demonstrated that inhibiting telomerase in tumor cells results in reestablishing the counting mechanism, so that the tumor cells become mortal and eventually die. Dr. Wright received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1970 and received both his Ph.D. and M.D from Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition, his postdoctoral work in Biochemistry was completed at the Pasteur institute in Paris, France. Dr. Wright is an author of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is a recipient of numerous awards including the AlliedSignal Award for Research on Aging, the Hayflick Award from the American Aging Association, and an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award. Most recently, he was awarded the Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction of the American Federation of Aging Research.
Dr. Gerald Weissmann will introduce Dr. Wright. Dr. Weissmann 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 is a foreign member of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and The Royal Society of Medicine. 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 Company from 1982 to 2000. Dr. Weissmann has a longtime association with the MBL. He is a former investigator and instructor in the MBL's Physiology Course and served for 18 years as an MBL Trustee. He is now a member of the MBL Board of Overseers. His nine books of essays range from The Woods Hole Cantata (1985) to Mortal and Immortal DNA (2009).
About the Joshua Lederberg Lecture: The Joshua Lederberg Lecture is sponsored by The Ellison Medical Foundation in honor of Joshua S. Lederberg, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate and founding Chair of the Ellison Medical Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Lederberg's insight, energy, and creativity were essential to the creation and successful development of The Ellison Medical Foundation over its first ten years.
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