Cellular traffic expert Schekman to speak
Randy Schekman, Ph.D., a cell biologist known for his studies on cellular membrane trafficking, will deliver the next Discovery Lecture.
Randy Schekman, Ph.D.
The lecture, “Protein sorting in the secretory pathway: Basic principles and consequences for human disease,” will begin at noon on Thursday, April 7, in 208 Light Hall.
Cells use a trafficking system to organize their activities and communicate with their environment. This system is vital to many cellular functions, from nutrient uptake to neurotransmission.
In 2002, Schekman and James Rothman, Ph.D., shared the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for discoveries about this process.
Although Schekman's research was performed in yeast, subsequent studies in higher organisms showed that these pathways are largely shared and that defects in the pathway may contribute to human conditions like Alzheimer's disease.
Schekman, a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, is also a Howard Hughes Investigator, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
His lecture is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs.
For a complete schedule of the Discovery Lecture series and archived video of previous lectures, go to www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.