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Nobel Laureate to speak
Symposium among events showcasing Center of Excellence
By JOHN DELLACONTRADA
Contributing Editor
One of the nation's newest and most innovative biotechnology centers, the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, will open in June with a full schedule of scientific and community events, including a science and industry symposium featuring world-renowned researchers in the fields of genomics, neuroscience and biomedical informatics.
Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and professor of molecular and cellular neuroscience at Rockefeller University, will be among the distinguished speakers at the "Frontiers in Biological Systems" symposium, to be held June 13-15 at the Center of Excellence and the Hyatt Regency in Buffalo.
Greengard is renowned for his groundbreaking work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. Other featured presenters will include distinguished scientists Charles Cantor, chief scientific officer at SEQUENOM, a leading high-performance DNA analysis company based in San Diego, and Andrea Califano, professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University, where he directs the Columbia MAGNet Center, one of seven National Centers for Biomedical Computing funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Cantor is author of the first textbook on genomics, "The Science and Technology of the Human Genome Project." Califano is a pioneer in the field of computational biology.
For complete information about the symposium and to register, go to http://www. bioinformatics.buffalo.edu. Members of the public and the news media are invited to attend.
"It is a tremendous endorsement for the Center of Excellence that so many extraordinary scientists have agreed to speak at our symposium," says Norma Nowak, director of scientific planning for the center. "We hope this is just the beginning of their relationship with the center, and that they will serve as ambassadors for the center as we begin recruiting talented scientists worldwide to join us in this exciting new venture at UB and in Buffalo."
The symposium also will include two sessions describing the development and commercialization of biotech research from UB and in Buffalo. "Innovation in Bioengineering Technologies" will feature the work of the three UB researchers who are developing tissue-engineered blood vessels, computer programs for analyzing X-ray images of blood vessels to improve treatment of heart and brain vessels, and a chemical sensor trained to recognize disease biomarkers, respectively. "Success Stories in Building a Life Sciences Company in Western New York" will feature commentary from the CEOs and presidents of three Buffalo-based biotech companies: SmartPill Diagnostics, Empire Genomics and Reichert Inc.
Also speaking at the symposium will be scientists Michael Snyder, director of the Yale Center for Genomics and Proteomics; Thomas Blumenthal, professor and chair of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; Claire Fraser-Liggett, president and director, the Institute for Genomics Research; David Relman, director of the Proteomics/Genomics Core at the Digestive Disease Center, Stanford University School of Medicine; Samuel Danishefsky, professor and director of bioorganic chemistry at Columbia University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Nathaniel Heintz, director, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Margaret Pericak-Vance, director of the Center for Human Genetics, Duke University Medical Center.
Also, Lawrence S.B. Goldstein, professor of cellular and molecular medicine at University of California-San Diego and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Sangram Sisodia, director of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University of Chicago; Michael Becich, director of the Benedum Oncology Informatics Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical School; James Cimino, professor of biomedical informatics, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; and Charles Mead, senior associate, Booz Allen Hamilton.