Chemistry, biochemisrty departments present symposium
Postponed by the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, Utah State University’s R. Gaurth Hansen Symposium, themed “Genomics in the 21st Century,” has been rescheduled for Thursday.
The symposium will take place in the Eccles Conference Center auditorium from 9:15 a.m. to 4 p.m., and be presented by the department of chemistry and biochemistry.
Speakers for the symposium include Raymond Gesteland, a professor of human genetics and vice president for research at the University of Utah; John E. Mullet, director of the Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology and a professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics from Texas A&M; Joseph Ecker, professor in the Laboratory of Plant Biology and director of the Salk Institute Genomics Analysis Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and William Nierman, vice president for research at the Institute of Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., according to the department of chemistry and biochemistry’s Web Site, www.chem.usu.edu.
The event is centered around honoring R. Gaurth Hansen, a former USU provost and distiguished professor, said Steven D. Aust, a professor of biochemistry.
William J. Rutter, co-founder and former chairman of the board of Chiron Corporation, and a former graduate student of Hansen, will honor Hansen by donating a significant amount of money to start a new professorship in the department, Aust said.
Aust said Rutter is also interested in genomics, the study of organisms’ DNA sequences, and was the first to establishes human insulin.
The theme, “Genomics in the 21st Century,” is one of the new areas in biochemistry – and perhaps the most exciting, Aust said.
“There’s an incredible amount of work to be done,” Aust said, despite the recent release and accomplishment of sequencing the entire human genome.
“[It is still] an accomplishment that will lead to – who knows,” Aust said. “The genome is kind of like the start to everything.”
With this new breakthrough in biochemisty, scientists will now be able to understand genetic illnesses and diseases such as birth defects and cancer, and will be more capable to cure them, Aust said.
Aust said President Kermit L. Hall is also interested in this field and wants to establish a center for genomics at USU.
“He [President Hall] is asking the legislature for some money and requesting that other funds directed toward USU be used to start the center,” Aust said.