Lecture to honor victim of Sept. ...( Boston MA--Boston University School ...)

Boston, MA--Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) will present The Sixth Annual Sue Kim Hanson Lecture in Immunology on Friday, September 14, 2007 at noon. The annual lecture is in honor of Sue Kim Hanson, MA, PhD 02, a former researcher in BUSMs Pulmonary Center. Kim Hanson, along with her husband and daughter, were passengers on United Airline flight 175, the second plane that struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The lecture titled, Mechanisms of Signal Integration in Innate Immunity, will focus on how innate immune cells respond to viral infections by directing the synthesis of anti-viral proteins. It will be presented by Tom Maniatis, PhD, the Thomas H. Lee professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University.

Maniatis has been an international leader in the fields of molecular and cellular biology where his studies have provided critical insights regarding mechanisms of RNA transcription, pre-mRNA splicing and signal transduction. In 1982 he co-authored Molecular Cloning-A Laboratory Manual, a text that revolutionized the way modern biological research is conducted in the laboratory. His current research explores the regulation of innate immunity and the role of gene expression in brain development and function.

Kim Hanson moved to Boston and earned a MA degree in medical sciences from BUSM in 1992. After graduation, she joined the Schools Pulmonary Center. She then concurrently entered the PhD program in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at BUSM.

Her thesis project was an investigation of the role of interleukin-16 in immunity and targeted deletion of the interleukin-16 gene in mice. Her degree was awarded posthumously by unanimous vote by the thesis committee.

Sue was on her way to a promising career in molecular biology, said David Center, MD, Gordon and Ruth Snider Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at BUSM
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