Photo Opportunity: 3.45 pm,Friday, June 6, MSI Small Lecture Theatre (Enter through reception of Wellcome Trust Biocentre).
The role of molecules that mediate cell to cell interactions in vertebrate embryonic development will be discussed at the Bridget Ogilvie Lecture at the University of Dundeetoday, Friday, 6 June.
Dr Gail Martin from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) will deliver her lecture "FGF signalling in vertebrate embryogenesis". Dr Martin is investigating the proliferation and specialisation of embryonic cells and the processes which enable them to become limbs or brain.
Dr Martin's research interests are identifying, characterizing and understanding the function of genes involved in controlling outgrowth and patterning in the vertebrate embryo. Dr Martin co-discovered a way to isolate embryonic stem cells and pioneered their use to study early mammalian development.
Dr Martin is Professor of Anatomy and Director of the UCSF Programme in Developmental Biology. She received her PhD degree from the University of Berkeleyand did postdoctoral work at University College London and the University of Californiaat San Francisco, before becoming a lecturer there in 1979. She is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences.
The Bridget Ogilvie Lecture was founded in 1997, to acknowledge the former Director of the Wellcome Trust's key role in the events that led the Wellcome Trust to donate £10 million towards the cost of the Wellcome Trust Buildingat Dundee. This is thought to be the largest single charitable donation ever given to Scotlandin its history. The Bridget Ogilvie Lecturer is selected by each Division of the Wellcome Trust Buildingin rotation. This year's speaker is the selection of the Division of Cell and Developmental Biology.
The lecture will take place at 4pm in the small lecture theatre, Medical Sciences Institute, University of Dundee.
By Jane Smernicki, Press Officer 01382 344768 j.m.smernicki@dundee.ac.uk