Nobel Laureates to speak at cancer conference

The 2003 Lorne Protein and Cancer Conferences have snared two of the biggest names in medical research as guest speakers next February: 2002 Nobel Laureates Prof Sir Sidney Brenner, of the Salk Institute, and Prof Robert Horovitz, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Brenner and Horowitz shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Prof John Sulston, of Cambridge University, England, for their pioneering work in developing the tiny nematode worm Canorhabditis elegans, as a model system for the study of organ development and gene expression.

All three laureates made fundamental contributions to understanding the genetic events that underlie programmed cell death, or apoptosis, a formerly obscure mechanism that has become one of the hottest subjects in biological research.

Apoptosis is now known to play a crucial role in embryonic development, and is also responsible for the death of healthy neurons in central nervous system disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and motor neurone disease.

Apoptosis is also known to be a key player in cancer -- apoptosis normally rids the body of pre-cancerous cells, and the failure this protective mechanism triggers he rampant growth of mutant cells.

The Lorne protein and cancer conferences are among the biggest events on Australia's biomolecular research calendar, running from February 9-13 (Protein) and 13-16 (Cancer) at Erskine House, in Lorne, Victoria.