The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Robert Lefkowitz, M.D., James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Seven transmembrane receptors, also known as G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent the largest, most versatile and most ubiquitous of the several families of plasma membrane receptors. They regulate virtually all known physiological processes in humans. As recently as 40 years ago, the very existence of cellular receptors for drugs and hormones was highly controversial, and there were essentially no direct means of studying these putative molecules. Today, the family of GPCRs is known to number approximately 1,000, and crystal structures have recently been solved of approximately a dozen members of the family. Dr. Lefkowitz will briefly review how the field evolved over the past 40 years, including stories about his own research throughout this period. He will also discuss recent developments in the field, which are changing the general conception of how the receptors function and are regulated in fundamental ways. Finally, Dr. Lefkowitz will discuss the possibility of leveraging this new mechanistic and molecular information to develop new classes of therapeutic agents.

 

Dr. Lefkowitz received his M.D. in 1966 from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. After serving an internship and one year of general medical residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, he was a clinical and research associate at the National Institutes of Health from 1968 to 1970. From 1970 to 1973 he completed his medical residency and research and clinical training in cardiovascular disease at Massachusetts General Hospital, and joined Duke University in 1973. He is currently the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and a professor of immunology and biochemistry. Among his many honors are the National Medal of Science, the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

 

 

Open to

Public

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Gloria Phipps

Phone

(212) 327-8967

Sponsor

Gloria Phipps
(212) 327-8967
phippsg@rockefeller.edu