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Günter Blobel, M.D., Ph.D., and the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, delivered the 2008 Distinguished Nobel Laureate Lecture to a packed University Theatre on Wed., Jan. 16. His lecture, titled “Nucleo-cytoplasmic Traffic,” highlighted his groundbreaking research on the inner workings of the cell. It was presented by FAU and Scripps Florida.
Dr. Blobel, who is the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Professor, The Rockefeller University, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has spent years investigating and learning how proteins are delivered to their proper location to perform their specific function. He hypothesized and proved that each protein has a sequence in it—a code—which acts as a “zip code” directing the protein to the proper location or cellular address within the cell. His research is vital to helping understand what is wrong with cancer cells, what the AIDS virus or Alzheimer’s disease does to cells, and how to develop drugs to combat these and other diseases.
“Günter Blobel is both a friend and a colleague of long standing who is helping to guide Scripps as a member of our Board of Scientific Governors,” said Scripps Research Institute President Richard A. Lerner, M.D. “I am sure the friends of FAU and Scripps, and those interested in the best of biomedical science will find his lecture intriguing and enlightening.”
Dr. Ramaswamy Narayanan, associate dean for research and industrial relations in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, co-chaired the event with Dr. William R. Roush, professor of chemistry and associate dean of the Kellogg School of Science and Technology, The Scripps Research Institute. (Photo credit: The Rockefeller University.)
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