World-class researchers, including six Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry or Medicine, will participate from September 4 to 9 in one of the most prestigious academic scientific summits, the International Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Seville will host this event, which is jointly organized by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and the European Federation of Biochemistry Societies (FEBS). For the first time since its foundation in 1955, the IUBMB will hold its congress in Spain, the Andalusian capital being the city selected for the event. Miguel Ángel de la Rosa Acosta, Professor at the University of Seville and director of the Isla de la Cartuja Scientific Research Center (cicCartuja), whose candidacy was approved six years ago at the convention held in the Japanese city of Kyoto, played an important role in the selection of Seville.

Sin duda, uno de los principales atractivos de este Congreso Internacional de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, titulado “De las moléculas simples a la Biología de Sistemas”, se halla en la participación de seis Premios Nobel, que pronunciarán conferencias en el Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos de Sevilla (Fibes). Tim Hunt, Ferid Murad, Ada Yonath, Hamilton Smith, Robert Huber y Venki Ramakrishnan serán los científicos laureados por la Academia Sueca que intervengan en este congreso, aportando cada uno de ellos sus hallazgos en disciplinas como la biología, la química, la medicina o la farmacia. Estos investigadores disertarán, a su vez, sobre los retos futuros de la ciencia y sobre el progreso logrado en campos concretos, tales como la aplicación de células madre, el descubrimiento de nuevos fármacos o el desarrollo de terapias avanzadas contra enfermedades como el cáncer, la malaria o el alzheimer.

Undoubtedly, one of the main attractions of this International Congress on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, entitled “From simple molecules to Systems Biology”, is the participation of six Nobel Prize winners, who will give lectures at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos de Sevilla (Fibes). Tim Hunt, Ferid Murad, Ada Yonath, Hamilton Smith, Robert Huber and Venki Ramakrishnan will be the scientists awarded by the Swedish Academy who will take part in this congress, each of them contributing their findings in disciplines such as biology, chemistry, medicine or pharmacy. These researchers will discuss the future challenges of science and the progress achieved in specific fields, such as the application of stem cells, the discovery of new drugs or the development of advanced therapies against diseases such as cancer, malaria or Alzheimer’s disease.

The first Nobel Laureate to speak at the congress, on the opening day, September 4, will be the British biochemist Tim Hunt, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2001 for discovering the function of a family of proteins, the cyclins, and of enzymes, the kinases, in the cell cycle. These studies made Hunt a reference in cancer research. The next Nobel Laureate to participate will be the American physician Ferid Murad, who will dedicate his lecture, scheduled for September 5, to the role of nitric oxide in drug development. It was precisely this line of research that won Murad the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1998. On the same day, September 5, in the afternoon, the scientist Ada Yonath, director of the Center for Biomolecular Structure in Israel, her country of origin, will also participate. Yonath, creator of a technique for the study of crystallography in biological structures -a finding for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009- will address the role of ribosomes in the development of new antibiotics.

Then, on Friday, September 7, it will be the turn of the American Hamilton Smith, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1978 and Prince of Asturias Award in 2001, who, from the company Celera Genomics, has led important research on DNA, being one of the main disseminators of the “map” of the human genome. On the following day, September 8, the German Robert Huber, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988, pioneer in the crystallization of an essential protein in the photosynthesis of cyanobacteria and one of the leading specialists in the use of the X-ray diffraction technique, will speak. Finally, the participation of scientists recognized with the Nobel Prize will be closed by the Indian scientist Venki Ramakrishnan, who was awarded by the Swedish Academy in the same edition as the aforementioned Ada Yonath. Ramakrishnan shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with the Israeli and the American Thomas A. Steitz, for the study of the structure and function of the ribosome.

These internationally renowned scientists are joined at the Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by others who, although they have not been awarded the Nobel Prize, have an outstanding professional career. This is the case of Bruce Alberts, science advisor to US President Barack Obama; the Chinese Sai-Juan Chen, director of the Shanghai Hematology Institute, expert in the treatment of leukemia; the Japanese Kazutoshi Mori, director of the Biophysics Laboratory of Kyoto University; the Peruvian Carlos Bustamante, specialist in the control processes of gene expression and professor at the University of Berkeley; the German Mathias Mann, director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry; and the Spaniards Joan Guinovinov, director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry; or the Spaniards Joan Guinovart, responsible for the scientific program of the congress; Carlos López Otín, professor at the University of Oviedo and winner of the National Research Award, who has studied the sequencing of the genome of chronic lymphatic leukemia; María Blasco, director of the National Cancer Research Center; or Joan Massagué, winner of the Prince of Asturias Award in 2004 and director of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

In total, some 2,500 scientists from different research centers, laboratories and international universities will attend the congress, which will make Seville a world reference point for biochemistry and molecular biology, two disciplines of great relevance for progress and social welfare, for six days.

More information about the Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the attached dossier and on the website:

http://www.iubmb-febs-2012.org/IUBMBFEBS2012/