VOLUME 12, NUMBER 22 • MAY 18, 2001

Doudna to Discuss "Hijacking the Ribosome"

Jennifer Doudna, the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and an associate investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will present the Friday lecture today (May 18). Doudna's topic will be "Hijacking the Ribosome: Structural Basis for Translation Inititation in Hepatitis C."

Doudna is the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and an associate investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Doudna is interested in the structures and mechanisms of RNA catalysts, and in the roles of structured RNA molecules in RNA processing and translation initiation. Her current research is focused on understanding and comparing catalytic strategies used by RNA to those of protein enzymes. Her research group is also studying the structure and function of RNA-protein complexes involved in initiation of protein synthesis and transport of proteins to the cell membrane.

She has received several honors for her work on the structure and function of RNA, including the Johnson Foundation Prize for Innovative Research in 1996, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research in 1999, the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation in 2000 and the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 2001.

She received her B.A. in biochemistry from Pomona College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she worked with Jack Szostak on the design of self-replicating RNA. Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Tom Cech at the University of Colorado, she joined the Yale faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1994. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1997 and Professor in 1999. Doudna was a Lucille P. Markey Scholar, a Donaghue Young Investigator, a Searle Scholar, and a Beckman Young Investigator, and she is currently a fellow of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an assistant investigator in 1997 and was promoted to associate investigator in 2000.

Doudna's talk begins at 3:45 p.m. in Caspary Auditorium and is preceded by a tea in Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Lounge. All are welcome.