CU researchers join Varmus, Fraser and Lederman at three 'biorevolution' forums

Fraser

Lederman

Varmus

Cornell, which has launched a major research effort in the life sciences, is planning forums in three cities over the coming months to showcase some of the university's leading researchers exploring the "biorevolution" that promises to change the course of biological research into medicine, food production and the environment.

Appropriately, the events are grouped under the theme, "The Power and Promise of Life Sciences."

The dates and venues for the three forums are: March 19, American Museum of Natural History, New York City; April 12, tentatively scheduled at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.; and May 8, Museum of Science, Boston.

The forums will focus on innovative research collaborations among biologists, physicists, chemists, engineers and computational scientists. Participants will talk about the societal impact of this collaboration and highlight research and recent discoveries in the life sciences at Cornell.

Keynotes speakers at the events will be: in New York City, Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former director of the National Institutes of Health; in Bethesda, Claire M. Fraser, president of the Institute for Genomic Research; and in Boston, David Lederman, president and chief executive of ABIOMED Inc., maker of the world's first self-contained artificial heart. All three forums will be hosted by President Hunter Rawlings.

Each event will feature a Cornell faculty panel focusing on a specific life-sciences research theme: March 19, "Revolutionizing Research: Where Human Health, Engineering and Bioterrorism Meet," moderated by Kraig Adler, vice provost for life sciences; April 12, "Accelerating Discovery: A New Paradigm for Addressing Medicine, Food Production and the Environment," moderated by Kent Fuchs, dean of the College of Engineering; and May 8, "Improving Lives: Safer Food, Better Medicine and Helping Your Child to Read," moderated by Robert Constable, dean for computing and information science.

Participating faculty will include Antje Baeumner, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering; Donald Bartel, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Paul Soloway, associate professor of nutritional sciences; Nelson Hairston, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Environmental Science and chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Michael Kotlikoff, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences; Susan McCouch, associate professor of plant breeding; Kathryn Boor, associate professor of food science; Charles Aquadro, professor of molecular biology and genetics and of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Elise Temple, assistant professor of human development.

All three forums will include a panel discussion on "The Business of the Life Sciences: The Next Big Thing," in which Cornell alumni from the biotechnology, healthcare and venture-capital sectors will discuss the economic impact of the new life-sciences research. The March 19 panel will be moderated by George Scangos '70, president and chief executive of Exelixis Inc.; the April 12 panel by Marlene Krauss '65, managing director of KBL Healthcare Ventures; and the May 8 panel by Myra Maloney Hart '62, professor, Harvard Business School, and founder and former vice president of Staples Inc.

Cornell faculty participating in the forums are involved in the $500 million New Life Sciences Initiative, the largest and most far-reaching research effort in the university's history. A centerpiece of the initiative is the $110 million Life Science Technology Building, planned for the west end of Alumni Field on the university's central campus. It is being designed by architect and alumnus Richard Meier '57.