[bioundgrd] SAVE THE DATE: HHMI Lecturer Roderick MacKinnon, 3/19 4pm WI-110

[MacKenzie Outlund]

The Biology Undergraduate Student Association (BUSA) invites you to attend:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Lecture
Speaker:  Roderick MacKinnon

Please join us for the lecture.
Open to undergraduates; others welcome.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
4:00pm at Whitehead Auditorium, WI-110


This is the flagship event for BUSA and we are proud to host Nobel Prize
winner Prof. Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller University as he presents:

"Ion channels: life¹s electrical impulse generators"

Ion channels are responsible for generating electrical impulses and
mediating numerous cellular processes. To accomplish their tasks in biology
ion channels must exhibit two basic properties, selectivity and gating.
Selectivity refers to the property of high fidelity discrimination among
similar ions, while gating refers to protein conformational changes that
open a channel in response to specific stimuli such as ligand binding or
membrane voltage. Recent developments on the molecular principles of
selectivity and gating in potassium channels will be presented.


Roderick MacKinnon is a professor at Rockefeller University and Investigator
in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received an undergraduate degree
from Brandeis University, a medical degree from Tufts University and
training in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.  His
research aims to understand the molecular basis of the electrical system of
living cells.  His studies have been recognized by numerous awards,
including the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.