UCSF EFA Guest Lecture Series: Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD

12:30 - 2 p.m. Pacific time

Join the UCSF Emeriti Faculty Association (UCSF EFA) for a virtual talk by guest speaker, Nobel laureate Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn.

Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, professor emeritus in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the enzyme telomerase, which plays a key role in normal cell function, cell aging, and most cancers. She will discuss her lifetime’s research journey, beginning with curiosity-driven basic science that has led to broader implications including understanding disease processes in humans and optimizing human health.

Dr. Blackburn’s research was first aimed at understanding, at a molecular level, how cells protect their telomeres – the caps at the tips of each chromosome. Her subsequent research led to the discovery of societal and environmental factors that impact telomeres and consequently, human health. Dr. Blackburn will explain the fundamental scientific discoveries and discuss the growing evidence that lifelong factors – including conditions of pregnancy and nutrition early in life – affect the telomeres and may reverberate throughout the life course to affect overall health.