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Nobel Laureate Lee Hartwell is Plenary Opening Lecturer
Lee Hartwell will deliver the Plenary Opening Lecture: "Perspectives on Science in the 21st Century" at the 2008 SOT Annual Meeting on Monday, March 17, 8:15 AM–9:15 AM, in Exhibit Hall 4F, Washington State Convention and Trade Center. He is President and Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Professor of Genome Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine and American Cancer Society Research Professor of Genetics. Dr. Hartwell is the recipient of many national and international scientific awards, including the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Other honors include the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, and the Alfred P. Sloan Award in Cancer Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
For most of Dr. Hartwell’s career he studied genes that control cell division in yeast. Subsequently, many of these same genes have been found to control cell division in humans and often to be the site of alteration in cancer. Dr. Hartwell also turned to yeast to investigate the basis for accurate cellular reproduction and discovered a new class of gene: the "checkpoint" gene. These genes notice when mistakes have been made during cellular reproduction and halt cell division so that repair can take place. His insights into cell-cycle control are being used at the Hutchinson Center and elsewhere to develop treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Recently, his interests have turned to how we can use the enormous knowledge that has accumulated over the last 50 years in genetics and biochemistry to benefit cancer patients. He believes that the most efficient path is to improve molecular diagnostics to identify individuals at high risk for disease, detect cancer and other diseases at an early stage when they can be cured, provide prognostic information, and monitor therapeutic response. Proteins will likely provide the best diagnostic information because of their greater diversity and because their state reflects biological function. The technology for protein diagnostics, however, is in its infancy. Dr. Hartwell’s efforts are now directed toward improving the field of protein diagnostics. He is involved in national and international projects to increase the number of laboratories working in protein diagnostics, develop more team science, improve the availability of informatics for data sharing, provide standardized reagents, and stimulate new development.
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