In May

Rutherford Medal lecture, hosted jointly by the Canterbury Branch of  RSNZ and RSNZ
Fibrous Proteins of the Human Body: Contributors to Shape, Motion and  Vision
Thursday, 14 May, 6.00pm Refreshments served from 5.30pm, Christchurch Art Gallery Auditorium (use the Gallery Gloucester St entrance)

Professor David Parry, Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey  University

Since about two-thirds of the human body is water the question that  immediately arises is “What are the other key constituents of the  human body that allow it to exist and function in the manner that it  does?” The answer is that it is the fibrous proteins that are largely responsible for giving the body its shape, its ability to move and its capability for vision. The skin, for example, acts as the barrier between our internal and external environment. Bones and cartilage gives our bodies their overall form. Hair provides animals with thermoregulatory and defence mechanisms, whilst arrays of muscle proteins and associated tendons allow us to move. The cornea, located at the outermost portion of the eye, refracts light on to the retina, thereby allowing us vision. This talk will address both the structural and functional aspects of these highly elongate fibrous proteins as well as new ways of designing fibrous proteins de novo.

Professor Parry is a structural biophysicist, working at the boundary between physics and biology. His research has focussed on the fibrous  proteins that constitute the bulk of the proteins in the human body and which enable it to move and function. Fibrous proteins are large and very complex molecules. Determining their structure, organization and modes of function has proved extremely challenging since X-ray crystallographic techniques that have been applied to other proteins are generally inapplicable for fibrous ones. Such research is vital for an understanding of human biology in its widest sense. He is a former President of the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics, and was recently the Vice-President for Scientific Planning and Review of the Paris-based International Council for Science, where he led the development of the Strategic Plan for World Science for the current six-year period. In November he was awarded the 2008 Rutherford Medal for Science and Technology, New Zealand’s top science award.

In June

The Cockayne Lecture: A DNA story of New Zealand plants
Wednesday, 3 June, 8.00pm, C3 Lecture Theatre, University of Canterbury

Professor Peter Lockhart, Institute of Molecular BioSciences, Massey  University

The fossil record of plants and their pollen has long been recognised as a kind of black box recorder or diary for evolutionary history in New Zealand. However, its interpretation has only recently been corroborated through reading the stories in DNA. This voice was unknown to Leonard Cockayne, who lamented when writing his famous story of New Zealand plants that “Perhaps, could they speak, we might learn.” He would be amazed at what we can learn from studying the genes and genomes of living plants. My talk will outline some of the recent discoveries and describe how new sequencing technologies are being used to further understanding of the nature and future of New Zealand plant species.

Professor Lockhart’s research interests are: Plant species radiation (for more information see: http://awcmee.massey.ac.nz/NZPRN/); Pacific biodiversity; Endosymbiosis and organelle evolution; Evolutionary properties of DNA and protein sequences.

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ALL WELCOME

Information on up-coming lectures can be found here

A map of the meeting location is here