Eric Lander
By
Shipra Shukla
The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center invites members of the campus community to hear noted genomic researcher Eric S. Lander, PhD, who will present "Beyond the Human Genome Project" as part of the Sokolow lecture.
Lander's lecture will be held on Wednesday, March 5, from 4 to 5 p.m. in Cole Hall on the Parnassus campus. He also will present "Genomics and Medicine" at Medical Grand Rounds on Thursday, March 6, from noon to 1 p.m. in Health Sciences West, room 300 on the Parnassus campus.
Lander is founding director of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, and a member of the Whitehead Institute. He holds faculty appointments as professor of biology at MIT and professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School.
Completed in 2003, the objective of the 13-year Human Genome Project (HGP) was to understand the genetic makeup of the human species and to create a blueprint for a human being. Needless to say, analyzing the function of the three-billion human DNA bases will continue for years to come.
"We stand at a remarkable moment in biomedicine," Lander said. "Genomic approaches are making it possible to take comprehensive views of biological systems. It opens enormous possibilities for the next generation of biomedical scientists."
As one of the leading contributors to the HGP, as well as to the field of genomics, Lander and his colleagues have been involved in not only mapping and sequencing of the human, mouse, and many other genomes, but also:
- • bringing understanding to functional genomic elements through comparative analysis;
- • investigating genetic variation and its relationship to disease susceptibility; examining gene products and how they work in the cell; and
- • bringing insight to genetic mutations underlying cancer.
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Maurice Sokolow |
Analytical and laboratory techniques developed by Lander's group have been applied to a broad range of common diseases, including cancer, diabetes, inflammatory diseases and mental illness.
Lander earned his BA degree in mathematics from Princeton University in 1978 and PhD degree in mathematics from Oxford University in 1981 as a Rhodes Scholar. He was an assistant and associate professor of managerial economics at the Harvard Business School from 1981 to 1990.
Lander has received numerous honors and awards over the years, including the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson Prize for Public Service from Princeton University, the Gairdner Foundation International Award of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
The Sokolow lectureship is named after Maurice Sokolow, MD, a cardiologist, researcher and faculty member of the UCSF community from 1936 until his death in 2002.
Born in New York, Sokolow moved to California as a young child with his family, after which he spent seven years in an orphanage following the death of his mother. He attended UCLA and UC Berkeley, with the help of his sister, Josephine Osborne, and then worked his way through medical school at UCSF, living at the Laguna Honda Hospital and working there at night. Upon receiving his medical degree in 1936, he was recognized with the Gold Headed Cane honor, awarded to the top graduating medical student.
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From left, Jane, Maurice and Ethel Sokolow |
Sokolow was a pioneer of modern clinical treatment of hypertension. During the 1950s, he was head of the hypertension section at San Francisco General Hospital. Sokolow later went on to be a founding member of the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute.
Among Sokolow's more than 160 medical publications is the textbook Clinical Cardiology, co-authored with Melvin D. Cheitlin, MD, and Malcolm McIlroy, MD. Now in its 6th edition, the textbook has been translated into seven languages.
After the deaths of Sokolow's daughter, Jane, from Burkitt's lymphoma in July 1970, and that of his wife, Ethel, from a breast malignancy the following December, the Ethel and Jane Sokolow Visiting Scientist Program was established at UCSF by their families, classmates and friends. Following Sokolow's death from lymphoma in 2002, the Fund was renamed the Maurice, Ethel, and Jane Sokolow Memorial Cancer Endowment Lectureship.
