25 May 2004
Yale Professor Lectures in Dundee
Photo Opportunity: 3.45 pm, Wednesday, 26 May 2004, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, University of Dundee
A leading American scientist studying how human genes work will deliver a prize-winning lecture at the
University of Dundee on 26 May.
Dr Joan Steitz, the winner of the 2004 Royal Society of Edinburgh Caledonian Research Foundation Lectureship,
is Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, at Yale
University.
Dr Steitz is spending a week in Scotland visiting research groups in Edinburgh and Dundee. She will deliver
her prize-winning lecture, "Pre-mRNA Splicing: the Tie that Binds" to an audience of scientists at the School
of Life Sciences on Wednesday, 26 May at 4 pm the MSI Large Lecture Theatre.
Dr Steitz has played a leading role in studying RNA, the molecule that carries genetic information from DNA.
She is especially well known for her seminal work on the interactions of RNA with protein and the mechanisms
of RNA processing.
Professor Angus Lamond said "It is an honour for the University to host the RSE Caledonian Research
Foundation Lecture and that Dr Steitz has chosen to present her lecture at Dundee. The School of Life
Sciences is a leading centre for the study of gene function and her lecture is an indication of our strong
international links."
Dr Steitz is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and is one of the most pre-eminent researchers
in Biomedical Science in the US. After training originally as a PhD student with Nobel Laureate and
co-discoverer of the helical structure of DNA, Professor James Watson at Harvard, Joan later worked in
England as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Since then, Joan
has spent the rest of her career working at Yale University and was awarded a prestigious professorship of
the Howard Hughes Institute. Joan is a founding member of the international RNA Society and throughout her
career has received many awards and honorary degrees of which the RSE Caledonian Research Foundation Lecture
is the latest.
The Caledonian Research Foundation promotes international research in Scotland in a number of ways including
its annual prize lectureship.
By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk | 
