Professor Robert Tjian, of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley will deliver the Bridget Ogilvie lecture tomorrow at the University of Dundee.
In 1982, Tjian's group discovered the first human "transcription factor".Transcription factors are proteins that control the production of the proteins that are encoded in the structure of DNA. This research area has become extremely important for drug discovery and Avandia, Glaxo SmithKline's blockbusting drug for the treatment of diabetes works by switching on and switching off a transcription factor. Professor Tjian founded TULARIK, a company in San Francisco, to identify compounds that regulate transcription factors for treating not only diabetes but diseases of the immune system and high cholesterol. For these and other discoveries, Professor Tjian has received numerous awards including election the US National Academy of Sciences in 1991.
Born in Hong Kong, Bob Tjian received a Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Berkeley in 1971 and his PhD from Harvard in 1976. After postdoctoral research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, he returned to his alma mater, where he has spent all his subsequent career, becoming a Howard Hughes Investigator in 1987.
The Bridget Ogilvie Lecture was founded in 1997, to acknowledge the former Director of the Wellcome Trust's key role in its £10 million donation for the Wellcome Trust Building at University of Dundee. This is thought to be the largest single charitable donation ever given to Scotland in its history. Dame Bridget Ogilvie will be attending this year's lecture.
The lecture will take place on Friday 4 May at 1 pm in the Large Lecture Theatre, Medical Sciences Institute. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Contact Angela Nicoll 01382 345072