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Hear from the scientists who discovered that HPV infection is the essential cause of cervical cancer and helped develop the recently approved HPV vaccines, Prof. Harald zur Hausen and Dr. Douglas Lowy.
Prof. zur Hausen's laboratory identified novel HPVs, showed the majority of cervical cancers contain DNA from these HPVs, and demonstrated that expression of specific HPV genes is a key feature of the cancers. Dr. Lowy's studies identified a method for making safe, non-infectious HPV particles that when used as a vaccine can induce very high levels of protective antibodies. Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have adopted this method to produce their effective commercial HPV vaccines that prevent infection and disease caused by the HPVs targeted by the vaccines.
Prof. zur Hausen and Dr. Lowy will be presented with Van Andel Institute's 2006 Daniel Nathans Memorial Award for their outstanding accomplishments. The Daniel Nathans Memorial Award was established in memory of Dr. Daniel Nathans, a distinguished member of our scientific community and a founding member of VARI's Board of Scientific Advisors.
- 5:00 p.m. - wine and cheese reception
- 6:00 p.m. - presentations
Prof. Harald zur Hausen: "Infectious causes of human cancer"
Dr. Douglas Lowy: "Prevention and treatment of cancers caused by infections"
The presentations are designed for a general audience. This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP by Friday, September 7, either using our online form or calling 616-234-5712.
Can't attend? View the live webcast at: http://media.vai.org/vaichannel2 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. on September 13. (requires Windows Media Player version 9 or above and at least 300Kbps of Internet bandwidth) |