Plenary Lectures
H. Robert HORVITZ
Nobel Laureate in PhysiologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Lecture Date: Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Lecture Time: 08:30 to 09:15 hrs
"Cell Suicide: Programmed Cell Death in Development and Disease"
Naturally-occurring or “programmed” cell death is a normal feature of animal development. In general, programmed cell death appears to be a process of cellular suicide. The misregulation of cell death has been implicated in a diversity of human disorders, including cancer, heart attacks, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. An understanding of programmed cell death should provide new approaches to the development of pharmaceutical agents that might be used to treat such disorders. By studying how genes control programmed cell death in a microscopic roundworm, we have discovered fundamental mechanisms for programmed cell death shared by animals as diverse as roundworms and humans.
