McCloskey Lecture

Please join the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicinal Chemistry in welcoming the 2009 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan, to deliver the Inagural James and Kathleen McCloskey Bioscience Endowed Lecture, Friday September 20th at 3:30PM.  The talk is entitled, Termination of translation in bacteria and eukaryotes and will be held in the L. S. Skaggs Auditorium, College of Pharmacy, 30 S 2000 E, Salt Lake City.  

Abstract:  

In all domains of life, the termination of protein synthesis during translation is triggered by the entry of a stop codon on mRNA into the A site of the ribosome. The three stop codons of the genetic code are recognized by a protein release factor. However, release factors in bacteria and eukaryotes appear to have no structural or sequence similarity. In this talk, I will describe structural work that sheds light on the basis of release factor function in the two domains of life and show that despite their dissimilarity, they share certain common features and mechanisms.

A reception in his honor will commence at 5:00 PM in the College of Pharmacy L. S. Skaggs Atrium.  Dr. Ramakrishnan's will hold a book signing during the reception.