Daily Trip Report: 2007 Lindau Meeting

Lectures and Meetings: July 4

Laureate Bert Sakmann

Laureate Avram Hershko

The program for the day included five lectures that covered a wide range of biological science, including talks on fundamental concepts such as evolutionary theory as well as explanations of new results in neuroscience and biochemistry.

The session opened with a talk entitled “Grey Matter(s)” by Bert Sakmann, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991 for the discovery of single ion channels in cells. He described research into the function of rat whiskers in guiding their movements, based on careful experiments tracing the signals generated in neurons by deflection of whiskers.

This was followed by a presentation given by Avram Hershko, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 2004, for his discovery of the mechanism by which ubiquitin controls degradation of proteins. He shared the prize with Irwin Rose and Aaron Chiechanover (who was also in Lindau this year and spoke on July 5). Professor Hershko’s lecture was titled “The ubiquitin system and its roles in the control of cell division.” In this talk he explained the role of ubiquitination of proteins in regulating the cell cycle, a topic that is related to the two lectures heard July 3.

Werner Arber, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1978 for the discovery of restriction enzymes, chose the topic “Darwinian Evolution as Understood by Scientists of the 21st Century” for his lecture. He noted the wealth of new experimental information about molecular biology that has been obtained in recent decades has changed the approach to evolutionary theory.

Günter Blobel of Rockefeller University in New York, who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1999, spoke on “Nucleo-cytoplasmic traffic across the nuclear pore complex.” He described how large biological molecules are transported between the cytoplasm of a cell and its nucleus, and explained the significance of these findings for the understanding of the functions of cells.

The final lecture of the day was given by Robert Huber, who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988. His talk was entitled “Proteolysis and its Regulation, A Molecular Basis.” Proteolysis is the breakdown of proteins into simpler molecules. Enzymes that enable proteolysis to occur have an essential function in cellular biochemistry, but they must be carefully controlled to avoid destruction of proteins that are necessary for the cell to continue to function. Dr Huber discussed the various complex mechanisms that regulate these processes.

In honor of the July 4 holiday, the U.S. delegation hosted a luncheon at the Hotel Stift for the delegations from the United Kingdom and Australia. The interactions were friendly and spirited, even though some politics were inevitably discussed!

The afternoon session again consisted of small-group discussions hosted by the morning speakers.

A portion of the Inselhalle during Laureate Günter Blobel’s talk