3 May 2005

Nobel Laureate to Deliver Lecture

Photo opportunity 3.45pm, Friday, 6 May, MSI Large Lecture Theatre, Wellcome Trust Biocentre , University of Dundee

Sir John Sulston, one of the UK's most distinguished scientists will deliver the Peter Garland Lecture in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee at 4 pm on Friday, 6 May.

As the Director of The Sanger Centre, Sir John became one of the world's largest contributors to the Human Genome Project and was the key advocate to ensuring that the genome information was made available to the scientific community.

The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Sydney Brenner, H Robert Horvitz and Sir John in 2002 for their seminal discoveries in identifying key genes that regulate organ development and programmed cell death and showed that corresponding genes exist in higher species including man. The discoveries are important for medical research and have shed new light on the pathogenesis of many diseases.

Sir John has received numerous honours and awards for his research and scientific achievements, including the Gairdner Foundation Award, the Darwin Medal from the Royal Society, the Rosenstiel Award from Brandeis University, the Pfizer Prize for Innovative Science, the Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Medal of the Biochemical Society, the George W Beadle Medal and the Edinburgh Medal. In 2001 he was made Knight Bachelor in the New Year's Honours. In 2001 he received the Prince of Asturias Award and in 2002 received the Fothergillian Medal from the Medical Society of London.

The Peter Garland Lecture is the School of Life Sciences' most prestigious lecture and seven of the last nineteen annual speakers have been Nobel Prize winners. Peter Garland became the first Professor of Biochemistry in Dundee in 1970 and over the next 14 years built it up into one of the strongest in the UK.

The lecture, entitled "Society and the human genome: what is science for?" will be held in the MSI Large Lecture Theatre, in the Wellcome Trust Biocentre at Dundee.

By Roddy Isles, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, r.isles@dundee.ac.uk