October 13, 2016

Autoimmune diseases expert Kappler set for next Discovery Lecture

John Kappler, Ph.D., a pioneer in the study of autoimmune diseases, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in room 208 Light Hall.

John Kappler, Ph.D., a pioneer in the study of autoimmune diseases, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in room 208 Light Hall.

John Kappler, Ph.D.
John Kappler, Ph.D.

His talk, which also is being given as an Irwin Eskind Lecture in Biomedical Science, is entitled “Breaking Through Immunological Tolerance.” It is sponsored by the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center and the Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology.

Kappler is a distinguished biomedical investigator at National Jewish Health in Denver, and at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in nearby Aurora.

He also is an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

A graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Kappler earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1970. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Biology at the University of California, San Diego.

He and his wife and scientific partner, Philippa Marrack, Ph.D., also an HHMI investigator, have won several international awards for their research.

For a complete schedule of the Flexner Discovery Lecture series and archived video of previous lectures, go to www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.