ATTENTION: News editors and science reporters
WHAT: A press conference at the University of California, Berkeley, with Randy Schekman, co-winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in discovering the machinery that regulates the transport and secretion of proteins in our cells.
WHEN: 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 7
WHERE: Blum Center Conference Room, Blum Hall, UC Berkeley. Blum Hall is about 100 yards past Euclid Avenue on the right side, across from Etcheverry Hall, at the northeast end of campus. See the campus map .
WHO: Speakers will include:
- Randy Schekman , UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology
- Nicholas Dirks , UC Berkeley chancellor
- G. Steven Martin , dean of the biological sciences in the College of Letters & Science
DETAILS: Schekman shares the 2013 prize with Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University and James E. Rothman of Yale University. The Nobel Committee lauded the three scientists for making known “the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.”
Schekman mapped out the machinery by which yeast cells sort, package and deliver proteins via membrane bubbles to the cell surface, and his findings enabled the biotechnology industry to exploit the secretion system in yeast to create and spit out pharmaceutical products and industrial enzymes. Today, diabetics worldwide use insulin produced and secreted by yeast, and most of the hepatitis B vaccine used around the world is secreted by yeast.
NOTE: Media parking is extremely limited and reserved for television crews. TV trucks should drop off their equipment at Blum Hall on Hearst Avenue before proceeding to park. To park, enter through the east gate of the campus, off Gayley Road, where crews will receive instructions about parking on South Drive. See the campus map .
Reporters who cannot come to the event may call in via conference phone line to listen to the press conference and ask questions: (866) 740-1260; Access code 3843618# (toll-free from U.S. & Canada). For international toll conferencing, dial +1 (303) 248-0285; Access code 3843618#.
A full video of the press conference will be available later in the day at http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley . To download broadcast-quality, full-resolution video of the press conference, contact Roxanne Makasdjian at roxannem@berkeley.edu .
For more coverage of the Nobel win at UC Berkeley, visit the UC Berkeley NewsCenter .