Discovery Lecture to feature Nobel laureate Samuelsson
Nobel laureate Bengt Samuelsson, M.D., D.Med.Sc., who has pioneered the field of prostaglandins and related molecules, will give two lectures at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Thursday, Oct. 11.
Samuelsson, professor of Physiological Chemistry at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, will deliver the first John A. and Meredith S. Oates Lectureship in Clinical Pharmacology during Medical Grand Rounds at 8 a.m. in 208 Light Hall.
His lecture is entitled, “From Biochemical Mechanisms to Novel Drug Targets: The Cyclooxygenase Pathway.”
At 4 p.m., also in 208 Light Hall, Samuelsson will deliver the next Vanderbilt Discovery Lecture. His topic: “From Biochemical Mechanisms to Novel Drug Targets: The 5-Lipoxygenase Pathway.”
Samuelsson shared the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his colleague and mentor, Sune Bergström, M.D., and British pharmacologist Sir John Vane, D.Phil., for their groundbreaking discoveries involving eicosanoids.
This large family of molecules includes the prostaglandins. It is involved in a wide range of pathological conditions, from heart attack and stroke to allergies, asthma and cancer.
The Oates lectureship is named for John A. Oates, M.D., the Thomas F. Frist Professor of Medicine and professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt, and his wife, Meredith. In 1973, Oates, a former director of Clinical Pharmacology and former chair of Medicine, was a visiting scientist in Samuelsson's laboratory.
For a complete schedule of the Discovery Lecture Series and archived video of previous lectures, go to www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.