Nobel Laureate Lecture Series

June 16, 2023 at 5 p.m.

Live-Stream in the Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center (with the option for Q&A)

or via: https://eu02web.zoom.us/j/62276584654  /  Webinar-ID: 622 7658 4654 / please contact phd-careers@dkfz.de for any further questions

Lecture Title:

Revolutionizing Molecular Biology: Telomerase, Aging, and Cancer

Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn has made groundbreaking contributions to molecular biology, particularly through her co-discovery of the telomerase enzyme in 1984. This pivotal finding revolutionized our understanding of cellular aging and the development of cancer, leading to her shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. Blackburn and her research team at UCSF continue their groundbreaking work on telomerase and telomere biology, focusing on various cell types, including human cells. As a prominent figure in the scientific community and a staunch advocate for gender equality, Blackburn will also share her personal career journey and provide practical advice for overcoming challenges and biases while promoting a more equitable scientific landscape. She initiated the "Lindau guidelines" for scientific research and conduct that will support global, sustainable and cooperative open science in the long-term.

Short Bio:

Born in Australia, Elizabeth Blackburn obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Melbourne, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in England. After her postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University Blackburn joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978. In 1990, she moved across the San Francisco Bay to UCSF where she became a Professor Emeritus at the end of 2015.

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July 19, 2018 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center

Lecture Title:

Germline mutagenesis to identify essential components of the mammalian immune system

Formerly a slow and arduous process, forward genetics in mammals has recently become much faster.  It is now limited only by the rate at which mutations can be screened for their phenotypic effects.  When a phenotype is detected, its mutational cause is usually identified immediately, whether it is well known or novel.  Not only the causative mutation, but all non-causative mutations as well, are detected and recorded in the process.  In this way, many genes are exonerated as others are implicated in the biological phenomena under study.  Even relatively weak phenotypic effects can be detected and ascribed to causative mutations with confidence in quantitative screens.  During the past few years, more than 1,000 phenotypes have been ascribed to causative mutations using the new high-throughput approach.  At present writing, we have damaged or destroyed about 36% of all genes and examined the mutant alleles twice or more in the homozygous state using an average of 88 assays per mouse.  Many new immunodeficiencies have been identified, and a general impression of the cause of more common disease phenotypes, such as allergy, has emerged from our work.

Short Bio:

Dr. Bruce Beutler studied medicine at the University of Chicago.  Early in his career he isolated mouse TNF, and discovered its inflammatory properties.  Later he developed TNF inhibitor proteins that found widespread use in clinical medicine.  Using genetics, and taking the TNF response as a biological endpoint, he then identified Toll-like receptor 4 as the mammalian sensor of bacterial lipopolysaccharides.  These groundbreaking studies of innate immune sensing and response earned Beutler the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with J. Hoffmann and R. Steinman).  Beutler directs the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.

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October 27, 2017 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center

Lecture Title:

Controlling the Cell Cycle

Both S-phase and mitosis are common to all cell cycles and both are necessary for the two newly divided cells to receive a full complement of genes.  In fission yeast the onset of S-phase and mitosis can be controlled by a single cyclin dependent kinase with different levels of CDK activity bringing about progression through the cell cycle in an orderly fashion.  Using phosphoproteomics we show that a low CDK activity is sufficient to bring about S-phase whilst a high activity blocks a further S-phase and is needed for onset of mitosis.  A G2 cell can be programmed to undergo either S-phase or mitosis simply by modifying CDK activity indicating there is no inherent direction in the cell cycle.  

Short Bio:

Sir Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked on how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled and how cell shape and cell dimensions are determined. His major work has been on the cyclin dependent protein kinases and how they regulate cell reproduction. He is Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, and has served as President of the Royal Society, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK and President of Rockefeller University. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has received the Albert Lasker Award and the Royal Society's Royal and Copley Medals. He was knighted in 1999, received the Legion d'honneur in 2003, and for 15 years was a member of the Council for Science and Technology advising the UK Prime Minister and Cabinet concerning science and innovation issues, and is now a member of the EU Scientific Advice Mechanism.

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June 8, 2017 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center

Lecture Title:

Contemplating an end to the HIV epidemics - what is left to be done?

Much progress has been made in the development of tools to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV infection.  However, we still do not have a vaccine and antiretroviral treatments are not curative as HIV persists in many compartments of the body. The implementation of these tools at large scale worldwide remains a critical challenge as well as the sustainability of these life-long therapies. Recent advances in our understanding of protective immune responses and of HIV persistence have generated some optimism about the development of novel vaccine and HIV cure strategies, which are an absolute necessity to end the HIV epidemics. 

Short Bio:

Françoise BARRÉ-SINOUSSI has been involved in retrovirology research, since the early 1970's and recognized for her contributions to HIV/AIDS research, in particular the discovery of HIV in 1983. Until 2015, as Research Director at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Professor at the Institut Pasteur in France, she has been leading research programs on HIV/AIDS pathogenesis. She has been also strongly implicated in promoting multidisciplinary and translational science. In 2010, she launched the IAS “Toward an HIV Cure” initiative, as part of her strong implication in advocacy to accelerate scientific evidences-based public health interventions on HIV/AIDS. She has a long lasting experience of collaboration with resource-limited settings through the Institut Pasteur International Network and ANRS research programs in Cambodia and Vietnam. Today, she serves as Honorary President of the Institut Pasteur International Network and of the Virology Department of the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Françoise BARRÉ-SINOUSSI is author and co-author of more than 300 original publications and of more than 125 review articles. She has been invited as a speaker at more than 400 International meetings and/or conferences. She has been the President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) between 2012 and 2014 and is still member or chair of number of international scientific advisory panels and boards. Since 2009, she is a member of the National Academy of Science in France. She also received more than 40 national or international awards and honors including the Nobel Prize of Medicine in 2008 for her contributions to HIV/AIDS. 

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September 8, 2016 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center

Lecture Title:

Key issues in contemporary medicine: resistance, the microbiome and environmental aspects. Focus on ribosomes

Resistance to antibiotics and the spread of antibiotics’ metabolites are severe problem in contemporary medicine. Structures of complexes of eubacterial-ribosomes with antibiotics paralyzing them illuminated common pathways in the modes of antibiotics inhibitions, synergism, differentiation and resistance. Recent structures of ribosome from a multi-resistant pathogenic bacteria identified features that can account for species-specific diversity in infectious-diseases susceptibility. Furthermore, careful analysis and comparisons to ribosomes from benign bacteria indicated that they may lead to the design of environmental-friendly degradable antibiotics, alongside species-specific drugs, thus protecting the environment alongside preserving the microbiome. 

Short Bio:

Ada Yonath focuses on genetic code translation and on the antibiotics paralyzing this process, for which she won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She is the Director of Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure at Weizmann Institute, Israel. Previously she also headed the Max-Planck-Research-Unit for Ribosome Structure in Hamburg, Germany.

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January 28, 2016 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ 

Lecture Title:

Grid cells and the cortical map of space

Short Bio:

Edvard Moser is a Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. He is interested in how spatial location and spatial memory are computed in the brain. His work, conducted with May-Britt Moser as a long-term collaborator, includes the discovery of grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, which provides clues to a neural mechanism for spatial mapping. Subsequent to this discovery the Mosers have identified additional space-representing cell types in the entorhinal cortex and they are beginning to unravel how the neural microcircuit is organized.

 Edvard Moser received his initial training at the University of Oslo under the supervision of Dr. Per Andersen on mechanisms of memory formation in the hippocampus in freely-moving animals. In 1995-96, he worked as a post-doc with Richard Morris on the role of long-term potentiation in hippocampal memory. In 1996, he spent three months with John O’Keefe to learn tetrode recording in the hippocampus. Edvard Moser accepted an associate professorship at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in August 1996. He became a full professor at the same institution in 1998. In 2002 he became the Founding Director of the Centre for the Biology of Memory. In 2007 the Centre became a Kavli Institute. Edvard Moser is the Director of the Kavli Institute. He is also Co-Director of the newly established Centre for Neural Computation at the same institution. Together with May-Britt Moser and John O´Keefe, Edvard Moser was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2014.

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March 25, 2015 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center

Lecture Title:

Modeling Human Cancers in the Mouse

Short Bio:

MARIO R. CAPECCHI was born in Verona, Italy in 1937.He received his B.S. in chemistry and physics from Antioch College in 1961 and his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in 1967.He completed his thesis work under the guidance of Dr. James D. Watson.From 1967-69 he was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University.In 1969 he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Harvard School of Medicine and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1971.In 1973 he joined the faculty at the University of Utah as a Professor of Biology.Since 1988 Dr. Capecchi has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; since 1989, a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine; and since 1993, Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology.

Dr. Capecchi is best known for pioneering the technology of gene targeting in mouse embryo-derived stem (ES) cells that allows scientists to create mice with mutations in any desired gene by choosing which gene to mutate and how to mutate it.This gives the investigator virtually complete freedom in manipulating the DNA sequences in the genome of living mice, and allows detailed evaluation of any gene’s function during its development or post-developmental phase.Research interests include the molecular genetic analysis of early mouse development, neural development in mammals, production of murine models of human genetic diseases, cancer and factors affecting life expectancy, homologous recombination and programmed genomic rearrangements in the mouse.

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November 20, 2014 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center

 Lecture Title:

Neurexin Function in Synapse Specification: Towards a Molecular Logic of Neural Circuits

Core Information:

Thomas Südhof is a German-American neuroscientistand a professor of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. He received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.

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UPDATE: all Lectures are available online now!

We are happy to announce that we have now published all lectures of the symposium online!

http://www.dkfz.de/en/kh-bauer-symposium/nobel-lectures.html

Please note that due to some restrictions and unpublished data of some speakers, we were not always allowed to show all slides. Thank you for your understanding.

October 31, 2014 is considered the actual 50th birthday of the DKFZ. Therefore, the Management Board would like to cordially invite you to the K.H. Bauer Symposium (named after the founder of the DKFZ Karl Heinrich Bauer).

Six Nobel Laureates have confirmed their visit and will each give a lecture including a short Q & A session. Please find the detailed program on the following page:

http://www.dkfz.de/en/kh-bauer-symposium/index.html

April 3, 2014 at 5 p.m. - Lecture Hall, DKFZ Communication Center 

Lecture Title: 

The development of color patterns in fishes: Towards an understanding of the evolution of beauty

Short Bio:

• Postdoc in the laboratories of Walter Gehring, Basel, and Klaus Sander, Freiburg. Group leader at the EMBL, Heidelberg (1978-1981) and the FML of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Tübingen (1981-1984).

• Since 1985 Director at the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology, Tübingen. Her research interests concern the molecular and genetic analysis of development. The research presently focusses on the establishment of cell polarity in Drosophila, and organ formation, growth and cell migration in the zebrafish, a new vertebrate model organism.

• For the discovery of genes that control development in animals and humans, and the demonstration of morphogen gradients in the fly embryo she has received a number of awards among others the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1995.

Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2011

Lecture Title: Evolutionary Perspectives in Innate Immunity 

Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1999

Lecture Title: Molecular Design of Nature's Largest and Most Versatile Channel Lining the Nuclear Pore 

Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2008

Lecture Title: Viren und kein Ende