Recombinant DNA Lecture by Eric S.Lander

Eric Lander was a world leader of the international Human Genome Project, the effort to map the blueprint for a human being. Today, Lander is using the knowledge of the human genome to tackle the fundamental issue of medicine: to find the causes of disease.

Lander received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Oxford in 1981, as a Rhodes Scholar. He joined Whitehead Institute in 1986 and founded the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research in 1990. Lander became the founding director of the newly created Broad Institute in 2003.

Lander is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and U.S. Institute of Medicine. He was a MacArthur Fellow (1987-1992), and earned the Woodrow Wilson Prize from Princeton University(1998); the Baker Memorial Award for Undergraduate Teaching at MIT (1992); the City of Medicine Prize (2001); and the Gairdner International Prize (2002).

Recombinant DNA Lecture by Eric S.Lander

Using Dendritic Cells to Create Cancer Vaccines

Edgar Engleman, MD, medical director of the Stanford Blood Center, discusses his research involving the use of a special type of white blood cell as a treatment for cancer. Engleman, who is also a professor of pathology at the Stanford School of Medicine, and his team of researchers have been interested in dendritic cells, or DCs, which can provoke an immune response in the body.

The goal of this laboratory is to better understand dendritic cell biology with the objective of using this information to discover and develop more effective immunotherapeutic approaches to disease. We pursue this goal by performing experiments in both mice and humans. In our initial clinical studies antigen pulsed dendritic cells were administered to patients with cancer or life-threatening viral infections in order to induce specific immunity. The results of these trials have been extremely encouraging. More recently we have focused our studies on the development and life cycle of dendritic cells, including Langerhans cells, and the results have not only shed new light on dendritic cell biology but also have led to our ability to target dendritic cells in vivo without having to manipulate these cells in vitro. We believe that this new approach will eventually make it possible to downregulate as well as upregulate the immune system in an antigen specific manner.

Using Dendritic Cells to Create Cancer Vaccines

Biotechnology - Will It Create a New Industry?

Henri Termeer discusses growth of the 25-year-old biotech industry, including international mergers, R&D challenges and "product based" companies verses "platform based" companies

About the Speaker

Henri A. Termeer,President and CEO, Genzyme Corporation

Henri A. Termeer was appointed president of the Genzyme Corporation in 1983 and became the chief executive officer in 1985 and chairman in 1988. Under his leadership, Genzyme has grown from a modest entrepreneurial venture into one of the world's top five biotechnology companies. Mr. Termeer is known worldwide for his contributions to the biotechnology industry and particularly noted for his expertise in financing new initiatives. His innovative approaches have earned Genzyme the Laguna Niguel Best of Biotech Award in 1991 and 1994, as well as the Laguna Niguel Hall of Fame Award in 1997.

Biotechnology - Will It Create a New Industry?