Nobel Laureate Dr. Gunter Blobel to Speak at Florida Atlantic ...( BOCA RATON Fla. Jan. 11 -- Flori...),Health

BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Florida Atlantic University and Scripps Florida will present the 2008 Distinguished Nobel Laureate Lecture on Wednesday, January 16 from 4-5:30 p.m. in the University Theatre, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Gunter Blobel, M.D., Ph.D. is the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Professor, The Rockefeller University, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He will present a lecture entitled, "Nucleo-cytoplasmic Traffic," highlighting his groundbreaking research on the inner workings of the cell.

Blobel has spent years investigating and learning how proteins are delivered to their proper location to perform their specific function. He hypothesized and proved that each protein has a sequence in it -- a code -- which acts as a "zip code" directing the protein to the proper location or cellular address within the cell. Blobel's research is vital to helping understand what is wrong with cancer cells, what the AIDS virus or Alzheimer's disease does to cells, and how to develop drugs to combat these and other diseases.

"We are deeply honored to host Dr. Blobel at Florida Atlantic University and to be working in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute and Scripps Florida to bring an event of this magnitude to South Florida," said FAU President Frank T. Brogan.

"Gunter Blobel is both a friend and a colleague of long standing who is helping to guide Scripps as a member of our Board of Scientific Governors," said Scripps Research Institute President Richard A. Lerner, M.D. "I am sure the friends of FAU and Scripps, and those interested in the best of biomedical science will find his lecture intriguing and enlightening."

FAU's associate dean for research and industrial relations in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Dr. Ramaswamy Narayanan, is co-chairing the event with Dr. William R. Roush, professor of
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