Nobel laureate Tsien set to deliver upcoming Sutherland Lecture

Nobel laureate Tsien set to deliver upcoming Sutherland Lecture

Nobel laureate Roger Tsien, Ph.D., who has pioneered imaging methods for peering into the cell, will deliver the 2011 Earl W. Sutherland Lecture at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, in 208 Light Hall.

Roger Tsien, Ph.D.

Tsien, professor of Pharmacology and of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Tagging specific genes and proteins with GFP has greatly aided the study of gene expression and cell biology.

This approach could lead to new ways to image cancer and potentially to deliver targeted drugs to tumors.

Tsien's lecture, entitled “Breeding and building molecules to spy on cells and disease processes,” is sponsored by the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.

The lectureship honors Earl Sutherland, M.D., a former member of the department who was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries related to cellular signaling and hormone action.

For more information, contact Angie Pernell at 322-7001 or angie.pernell@vander-bilt.edu.