Events
(To be Cancelled)Distinguished Lecture by Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian
21 Nov 2019
Communications and Public Relations Office, CUHK
Tel.: 3943 8677
Email: cpr@cuhk.edu.hk
Speaker
Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian
– Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
– Senior Group Leader, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, UK
Lecture Topic
From Chemistry to Creating a Paradigm Shift in Genomics
Lecture Abstract
One copy of the human genome comprises a primary code made up of an arrangement of just over three billion units of the DNA bases (or ‘”letters”) G, C, A and T. While it had been taking years for Human Genome Project to employ thousands of instruments and spend several hundred million dollars to decode the first human genome, the decoding can now be done with a single instrument in one day with only a thousand dollars. In this lecture, Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian will discuss DNA sequencing and in particular a method for rapidly decoding the genomes that originated in Cambridge in the 1990s. There are other dimensions of chemical features that constitute additional coding mechanisms in DNA. He would also discuss chemistries for decoding additional chemical and structural features of the genome, as well as the impact of rapid genome sequencing on the life sciences, medicine and society.
The Distinguished Lecture by Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian originally scheduled on 21 November 2019 will be cancelled. The new arrangement will be announced once available.
