Centenary Distinguished Lecture - The Future of Medicine: Connecting Patients to Promising Research

Speakers

Professor Elizabeth H. Blackburn
Recipient of Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine 2009

Professor Susan Desmond-Hellmann
Chancellor of the University of California,
San Francisco

Biographies

Professor Elizabeth H. Blackburn

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, is a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research.

She discovered the molecular nature of telomeres - the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes that serve as protective caps essential for preserving the genetic information - and the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase. Blackburn and her research team at the University of California, San Francisco are working with various cells including human cells, with the goal of understanding telomerase and telomere biology.

Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She did her postdoctoral work in Molecular and Cellular Biology from 1975 to 1977 at Yale.

In 1978, Blackburn joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in the Department of Molecular Biology. In 1990, she joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UC San Francisco, where she served as Department Chair from 1993 to 1999. Blackburn is currently a faculty member in Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow of the Salk Institute.

Throughout her career, Blackburn has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. She was elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology for the year 1998. Blackburn is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), the American Academy of Microbiology (1993), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000).

She was elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000. She was awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Basic Medical Research (2006). In 2007 she was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most influential People and she is the 2008 North American Laureate for L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science.

In 2009, Dr. Blackburn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Professor Susan Desmond-Hellmann

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH became the ninth Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) on August 3, 2009. An oncologist and renowned biotechnology leader, Desmond-Hellmann also holds the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor appointment at UCSF. In her role as Chancellor, she oversees all aspects of the university and medical center's strategy and operations.

Prior to joining UCSF, Desmond-Hellmann spent 14 years at Genentech. From 2004-2009, she served as President, Product Development. In this role, she was responsible for Genentech's pre- clinical and clinical development, process research and development, business development and product portfolio management. She also served as a member of Genentech's executive committee, beginning in 1996. During her time at Genentech, several of the company's therapeutics were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the company became the nation's No. 1 producer of anti-cancer drug treatments.

Desmond-Hellmann is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. She was named to the Biotech Hall of Fame in 2007 and as the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association Woman of the Year for 2006. In November 2009, Forbes magazine named Desmond-Hellmann as one of the world's seven most "powerful innovators", calling her "a hero to legions of cancer patients". She was listed among Fortune magazine's "top 50 most powerful women in business" for seven years and, in 2010, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was elected to the Institute of Medicine. In June 2011, Princeton University awarded her an honorary Doctor of Science degree.

In December 2010, Desmond-Hellmann was appointed to the Board of Procter and Gamble. In January 2009, she joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic Advisory Council for a three-year term. In July 2008, she was appointed to the California Academy of Sciences board of trustees. In May 2009, she was appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board.

From 2005 to 2008, Desmond-Hellmann served a three-year term as a member of the American Association for Cancer Research board of directors, and from 2001 to 2009, she served on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. She served on the corporate board of Affymetrix from 2004-2009.

Desmond-Hellmann completed her clinical training at UCSF and is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. She also holds a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. During her tenure at UCSF, she spent two years as visiting faculty at the Uganda Cancer Institute, studying HIV/AIDS and cancer. She also spent two years in private practice as a medical oncologist before returning to clinical research.

The lecture is organised by the Technology Transfer Office, in association with the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering, HKU.