Dear all,

I am emailing you to let you know about an event which is taking place
at Imperial College London which I think would be of interest to you.
 
 
The Nobel conversation: discovering the unexpected.

The Nobel conversations bring winners of Nobel Prizes in the Sciences to
Imperial College London to discuss their major discoveries.  The
emphasis of these conversations is on discovering the unexpected in
science. After a brief presentation of the science, each Nobel Laureate
will be asked questions relating to: Why did you become a scientist and
what influenced your particular research path?  How did you view the
problem initially and how did it change as your groundbreaking work
unfolded?  Afterwards, the laureate will take questions from the
audience.
 
 
Professor Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D, presents; 'Prions - a new principle
of disease', as part 3 of a special three part Nobel Conversations.

Tuesday 17 June 2008. 17.30 in Lecture Theatre G16, Sir Alexander
Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London.

A drinks reception will follow the conversation.

Abstract: 

Dr Prusiner will discuss his discovery of prions - infectious proteins
that cause mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (CJD) in people and other neurodegenerative diseases in animals
and humans. The discovery represented a complete paradigm shift in
biology, since up to that point it was thought that DNA or RNA were
essential for the replication of any organism from viruses to human
cells. Dr Prusiner demonstrated that prions are formed when a normal,
benign cellular protein acquires an altered shape. His proposals of
multiple shapes or conformations for a single protein, as well as the
concept of an infectious protein were considered heretical. Prior to his
discoveries, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997, proteins
were thought to possess only one biologically active conformation.
Remarkably, the more common neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's diseases have been found over the past two decades to
be, like the prion diseases, disorders of protein processing.

Biography: 

Dr Prusiner received his undergraduate and medical training at the
University of Pennsylvania and his postgraduate clinical training at the
University of California, San Francisco. From 1969-72, he served in the
US Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health. He is a
member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine,
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical
Society, and is a foreign member of the Royal Society. Editor of 12
books and author of over 350 research articles, Dr Prusiner's
contributions to scientific research have been internationally
recognised. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1997). In 2001, Dr Prusiner founded
InProBiotechnology Inc., which is devoted to commercialising some of the
discoveries that he and his colleagues have made at the University of
California.


A ticket is required in advance for the conversation. Register at
[log in to unmask]


This is the last lecture in the series. Listen to podcasts of the
previous conversations at: www.imperial.ac.uk/media/onlinelectures

* Structure determination of membrane proteins; actual state, history
and methods by Professor Hartmut Michel 

* Memories of the future: early developments in NMR imaging (MRI) by Sir
Peter Mansfield 


Please let me know if you would like to attend? If you could promote
Professor Prusiner's conversation to colleagues in your organisation it
would be much appreciated. 

Best wishes
Laura
 
Laura Brown BSc (Hons)
Events Officer
Imperial College London 
Communications Division
Level 4 Faculty Building
South Kensington Campus
London
SW7 2AZ
 
 
Tel: ++44 (0)20 7594 8050
Fax: ++44 (0)20 7594 6700
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
www.imperial.ac.uk/events
 
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