Marker Lectures in Genetic Engineering Scheduled for 28 and 29 April

22 April 2008 —C. David Allis, the Joy and Jack Fishman Professor and head of the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology at The Rockefeller University in New York City, will present the Russell Marker Lectures in Genetic Engineering on 28 and 29 April 2008 at the Penn State University Park campus. The free public lectures are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science.

The series includes a lecture intended for the general audience, titled "Translating the Histone Code: A Tale of Tails," at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, 28 April, in the Berg Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building. Allis also will give a more specialized lecture, titled "The 'Marriage' of Covalent and Non-Covalent Mechanism of Chromatin Remodeling: Until Gene Activation Do Us Part," at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 29 April, in the Berg Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building.

Allis's laboratory focuses on the DNA-histone protein complex, chromatin, which is part of a sophisticated system that allows for extremely selective gene activation, or inactivation, in a given cell. His team investigates chromatin signaling via histone modifications such as acetylation, methylation, and phosphorylation. These modifications may act together to form a 'histone code' that, in turn, dictates further biological events. Their studies suggest that these and other chromatin-modifying activities are centrally connected to the control of normal cellular proliferation and differentiation as well as abnormal events leading to transformation and tumorigenesis.

Allis is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a past recipient of the 2001 DeWitt Stetten Jr. Award, the 2002 Dickson Prize in Medicine, the 2003 Massry Prize, and the 2004 Wiley Prize. He is a 2007 recipient of the Gairdner International Award. Allis received his B.S. degree from the University of Cincinnati and his Ph.D. degree from Indiana University.

The Marker Lectures were established in 1984 through a gift from Russell Earl Marker, professor emeritus of chemistry at Penn State, whose pioneering synthetic methods revolutionized the steroid-hormone industry and opened the door to the current era of hormone therapies, including the birth-control pill. The Marker endowment allows the Penn State Eberly College of Science to present annual Marker Lectures in astronomy and astrophysics, the chemical sciences, evolutionary biology, genetic engineering, the mathematical sciences, and physics.

For more information about the lecture or for access assistance, contact the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at 814-865-3072.

[ T S H / B K K ]