[bioundgrd] HHMI Lecture and Luncheon 3/19

[MacKenzie Outlund]

Dear Biology Undergrads:

Each spring the Biology Undergraduate Student Association (BUSA) hosts the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Lecture as its flagship event of the
year.  A prominent researcher joins us to share his/her work and interact
with the MIT community, most especially YOU, the Institute's undergraduates.
We are excited to announce that 2009's distinguished speaker is Nobel Prize
winner Dr. Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller University.

The BUSA Executive Board would like to invite you to join us Thursday, March
19 at 4pm in the Whitehead Auditorium (WI-110) for the 2009 HHMI Lecture.  A
small reception with Dr. MacKinnon will follow.

As a part of his visit, Dr. MacKinnon will have lunch specifically with
undergraduates from 12-1pm on March 19 in 68-181.  This is a wonderful
opportunity to have a much more personal interaction with our speaker.

***If you would like to attend this lunch, please RSVP to MacKenzie at
moutlund at mit.edu***

An introduction to Dr. MacKinnon's talk and brief biographical information:

"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.


We hope to see you March 19!

Sincerely,

BUSA Executive Board

Dima Ter-Ovanesyan and Cathy Zhang
Co-Presidents