The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) presented today (18 September) The Shaw Prize Lecture in Life Science & Medicine 2012 featuring the distinguished recipients of this year’s Shaw Prize in Life Science & Medicine, Prof Arthur L Horwich and Prof Franz-Ulrich Hartl. Some 400 participants including HKUST students, faculty, alumni, as well as experts from research institutes, industry, secondary school students and the public were impressed by the inspiring lectures.
Prof Arthur L Horwich spoke on “Chaperonin-mediated Protein Folding”. He introduced the protein folding studies over the past several decades, a screen in yeast for genes involved with the import of proteins into mitochondria. This process had been shown to require unfolding of precursor proteins during translocation across the membranes, thus necessitating refolding in the innermost matrix compartment. He also analyzed the structural and functional studies of bacterial homologue GroE. The study has now offered a mechanistic understanding of how the protein folding leading to Cystic Fibrosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
In his speech on “Molecular Chaperones: The Cellular Machinery of Protein Folding and its Implications in Human Disease”, Prof Franz-Ulrich Hartl illustrated the main principles of chaperone action in the cytosol. He also discussed the role of the chaperone network in controlling protein homeostasis and preventing the deposition of disease-causing protein aggregates. He speculated on the prospect of pharmacologically activating cellular chaperone capacity to combat neurodegenerative diseases.
The Shaw Prize, an international award to honor individuals who have achieved excellence in their respective fields, was established under the auspices of Sir Run Run Shaw in November 2002. It is managed and administered by The Shaw Prize Foundation based in Hong Kong. Shaw Prize in Life Science & Medicine, one of the three annual Shaw Prize awards, carries a monetary award of one million US dollars. The other two awards are the Prize in Astronomy as well as the Prize in Mathematical Sciences.
About the speakers:
Prof Arthur L Horwich currently holds the position of Professor of Genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his undergraduate and medical training at Brown University from 1969 to 1973. After a period of postgraduate clinical training in pediatrics at Yale, Horwich devoted himself to a basic science career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute (1978 – 1981) and then back at Yale (1981 – 1984). He has remained on the Yale faculty since that time. In addition to numerous prizes, including the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, which he shared with Franz-Ulrich Hartl in 2011, Horwich was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2003.
Prof Franz-Ulrich Hartl currently holds the position of Director, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. Hartl received his MD from the University of Heidelberg in 1982 and did postgraduate work at Heidelberg, Munich and then Los Angeles from 1982 to 1990 before he began his independent work as a faculty member at the Sloan Kettering Research Institute where he remained from 1991 to 1997. During that time he held the position of Howard Hughes Investigator from 1994 to 1997 after which he returned to Germany to assume his current position. In addition to numerous prizes, including the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, which he shared with Arthur L Horwich in 2011, and election to honorific societies, Hartl was elected as a Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2011.
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