Frontiers in Biology Lecture Series

The Frontiers in Biology lecture series in the Department of Biology was established in 1984 as a mechanism to attract prominent scientists to Texas A&M University for an extended visit with our faculty and students. This program of formal seminars and relaxed one-on-one interactions has enabled faculty and students from our department as well as other departments on campus to hear firsthand about the forefront of biological research from the leading figures of various biological disciplines.

SPRING 2006

• CYNTHIA KENYON, Department of Neuroscience, University of California San Francisco
  

FALL 2004

• JIM HUDSPETH, HHMI Investigator, F.M. Kirby Professor, The Rockefeller University
  

FALL 2002

• DAVID BAULCOMBE, The Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Center, United Kingdom
  "Everlasting tomatoes and a cure for cancer - A short history of gene silencing"
  "Mechanisms of gene silencing and disease resistance in plants"

SPRING 2001

• Sydney Kustu, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley
  "Regulation of nitrogen metabolism in enteric bacteria: genomic and structural studies"
  "Regulation of nitrogen metabolism in enteric bacteria: physiological and biochemical studies"

FALL 2000

• Michael Young, Laboratory of Genetics, Rockefeller University
  "Life's 24 hour clock: molecular control of circadian rhythms in animal cells"
  "New parts for Drosophila's circadian clock"

SPRING 2000

• Marc H.V. Van Regenmortel, Immunochemistry Laboratory, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire du CNRS
  "The Limits of Reductionism in Molecular Biology and Medicine"
  "Analyzing Molecular Recognition and Structure-Function Relationships with Biosensors"
  "The Potential of Synthetic Peptides as Viral Vaccines"
• Andy McMahon, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
  "The role of Hedgehog signaling in constructing the mammalian embryo"
  "Hedgehog actions and interaction at the cell surface"

SPRING 1999

• Masakazu "Mark" Konishi, Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology
  "Brain Mechanisms of Sound Localization in Owls"
  "Recent Advances in Birdsong Research"
• Martin Heisenberg, Theodor-Boveri-Institut fuer Biowissenschaften, Lehrstuh fuer Genetik
  "Flies, brains and the biological origin of the mind"
  "Pattern recognition with stabilized eyes: Genetic approach to Drosophila brain function

FALL 1998

• Ton Bisseling, Department of Molecular Biology, Agricultural University, Dreijenlaan Wageningen Netherlands
  "The phylogeny of nodulation: A comparison of legume nodulation and common plant development"
  "Microspectroscopic approaches to studying nod factor signaling in living root cells"
• Jeff Hall, Department of Biology, Brandeis University
  "Molecular neurogenetics of rhythms in Drosophila: The midst of the fly's circadian system and outward"
  "Special topic for the rhythm system of Drosophila: Inward to the clock from environmental signals"

SPRING 1998

• Marv Wickens and Judith Kimble, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  "Signal transduction, growth control and the decision between mitosis and meiosis in C. elegans"
  "3' UTRs and development"

FALL 1997

• Jose Antonio Campos-Ortega, Univerität zu Köln, Institute für Entwicklungsbiologie
  "Mechanisms of a cellular decision in Drosophila: epidermogenesis or neurogenesis"
  "Neurogenesis in zebrafish"

SPRING 1997

• Corey Goodman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
  "Wiring up the brain: Genetic analysis of the mechanisms that generate neural specificity"
  "To cross or not to cross: Genetic analysis of axon guidance at the midline"
• Woody Hastings, Harvard University, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
  "The circadian biological clock from man to microorganism"
  "Molecular and cellular organization of dinoflagellate bioluminescence: A luciferase with three active sites in one molecule"

• Brian Staskawicz, University of California-Berkeley, Department of Plant Pathology
  "Evolving concepts in plant-pathogen interactions"
  "Signal transduction events specifying plant disease resistance"

• Ken Keegstra, Michigan State University, DOE-Plant Research Laboratory
  "Chloroplasts are not green mitochondria: Differences and similarities in their protein import systems"
  "Targeting proteins into and across the chloroplastic envelope membrane"
• Chris Somerville, Stanford University, Carnegie Institute, Department of Plant Biology
  "Genetic dissection of membrane and storage Lipid Composition and Function in Arabidopsis"
  "Production of polymers in transgenic plants"

• Lucy Shapiro, Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Developmental Biology
  "The global control of cellular differentiation: The cell cycle"
  "Temporal & spatial control of cell polydifferentiation"
• Steven Reppert, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Biology
  "Melatonin: The hormone of the 90's"
  "Molecular analysis of the period gene in silk moths"

• Carol Gross, University of California, San Francisco, Division of Oral Biology
  "Regulation of the heat shock response"
  "RNA polymerase: Initiation, elongation and termination"
• Gordon Shepherd, Yale University School of Medicine, Section of Neurobiology
  "From odor molecules to odor maps: The molecular basis of olfactory perception"
  "Current issues in the analysis of odor processing"

• John Gerhart, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
  "Organizing Spemann's Organizer"
  "Dorsalization of the Xenopus egg"
• Paul Berg, Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Biology
  "Genes and disease"
  "Repair of deletions and double strand breaks in DNA by recombination in eukaryotes"

• Elliott Meyerowitz, California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology
  "Genetic and molecular control of flower development: How to build a flower from parts"
  "Genetic control of cell & organ number in developing flowers"
• Tom Silhavy, Princeton University, Department of Molecular Biology
  "Genetic analysis of protein secretion"
  "Signal transduction in the purin regulon"

• Michael Rosenfield, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Diego
  "Space and time: Transcriptional regulation of mammalian organogenesis"
  "A tale of two receptors: Codes of transcriptional activation"
• Sharon Long, Stanford University, Department of Biological Sciences
  "Rhizobium-Legume symbiosis: From pliny and prosopis to plasmids"
  "Bacterial nod signals and plant cell responses in the rhizobium-legume symbiosis"

• Adrienne Clarke, CSIRO, Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, University of Melbourne
  "Self-incompatibility in flowering plants: An overview"
  "Gametophytic self-imcompatibility in the solanaceae"
  "Extracellular secretions of the female pistil in Nicotiana alata, an ornamental tobacco"

• Brian Hall, Dahousie University, Nova Scotia
  "Epigenetics: Waddington's legacy and evolutionary developmental biology"
  "Embryos and fossils"
  "The developing skeleton: Models and mechanisms"

• Chris Leaver, University of Oxford, Department of Plant Science
  "Mitochondrial genome organization and expression in higher plants"
  "The molecular and biochemical basis of cytoplasmic male sterility"
  "Genetic and metabolic regulation of glyotylate cycle genes in higher plants"

• Ghillean Prance, Royal Botanic Gardens, United Kingdom
  "The conservation and utilization of the Amazon rainforest"
  The varied vegetation of the Amazon region"
  "Application of pollination and dispersal data to plant systematics"
• Eric Davidson, California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology
  "The sea urchin: Molecular basis of founder cell specification"
  "How embryos work: A general and comparative interpretation of early embryogenesis"
  "DNA binding regulatory factors of the sea urchin embryo"

• Robert Day, University of Delaware, Department of English
  "How to write and publish a scientific paper"
  "The history of scientific writing"

• Melvin Simon, California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology
  "Signal transduction in simple organisms"
  "G proteins and signal processing in eukaryotic organisms"
  "Interesting odds and ends"

• Dale Kaiser, Stanford University, Department of Biochemistry
  "Regulation of gliding motility in Myxococcus xanthus"
  "A regulatory logic for multicellular development in Myxococcus xanthus"
  "Doing genetics with underdeveloped microbes"
• Robert Bakker, University of Colorado, University Museum
  "Hot- and cold-running dinosaurs"
  "Dinosaurs: Bringing them back alive"
  "Suboptimal evolution"

• Michael Menneker, University of Virginia, Department of Biology
  "Biological clocks of man and beast"
  "Circadian organization among the vertebrates"
  "The Tau mutation in hamsters as a tool in circadian analysis"
• Stuart Kaufmann, University of Pennsylvania, Santa Fe Institute, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
  "Evolution and co-evolution on rugged fitness landscapes"
  "Evolution of order in genetic regulatory networks"
  "The four color wheels model of Drosophila development"

• Jeffrey Palmer, University of Michigan, Division of Biological Sciences
  "Transposition and rearrangement of chloroplast and mitochondrial genes in plants"
• W.J. Peacock, CSIRO, Division of Plant Industry
  "Control of anaerobic gene expression in plants"
• Paul Kaesberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Molecular Virology Laboratory
  "Role of viruses in present day molecular biology"

• Eric Davidson, California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology