Live videocast features top medical researchers

On Oct. 20, you’ll have a chance to see two of the world’s top medical researchers speak at the University of British Columbia—and you won’t have to leave the UVic campus to do it.

Dr. Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise in New York, and Dr. Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, are both winners of a 2008 Gairdner Award—one of the most prestigious international prizes in medical science.

Their Gairdner Symposium lectures will be videocast live to room 150 in UVic’s Medical Sciences Building from 4–5:30 p.m. The event is open to the public but aimed primarily at faculty and students with some background knowledge of the topics.

Bernstein is a leader in the fields of cancer, how blood cell components form, and genomics. His Gairdner Wightman Award honours his contributions to Canadian health research as a scientist and the inaugural president of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. His lecture will explore the key role of collaboration in the search for a safe and effective AIDS vaccine.

Ruvkun, who will speak on “The small RNA pathways of C. elegans,” won the Gairdner International Award for discovering tiny molecules of RNA that can control the activity of critical genes in animals and plants.

Info: 250-472-5500