RCMI Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus

First Biochemistry Symposium Held at Department of Biochemistry of the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine

The First Biochemistry Symposium: Chairs Speak About Their Research took place on January 16, 2008 from 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM in the 6th floor amphitheatre of the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. Dr. Ken Blumenthal from SUNY at Buffalo; Dr. Arthus Haas from the LSU Medical School at New Orleans; Dr. Bettie Sue Masters from the University Texas at San Antonio; Dr. Jim Karam from Tulane University at New Orleans; Robert Rhoads of LSU at Shreveport, and Colin Wraight of the University of Illinois at Urbana, all of them active or former chairs of prestigious biochemistry departments were the guest speakers. The conference was hosted by Dr. José R. Rodríguez Medina, Biochemistry Department Chair at the School of Medicine.

Sessions were moderated by Dr. Carmen L. Cadilla and Dr. Abel J. Baerga, both faculty at the Department of Biochemistry of the UPR School of Medicine, and by guest chair Dr. Mathew George from Howard University. A total of 93 participants attended the Symposium of which 72 were students and post docs and 21 were faculty members. .

The seminars were recorded with the support of the RCMI Center for Information Architecture in Research, and are available on Google Video at the following links:

• Peptide Neurotoxin Probes of Ion Channel Function
  Ken Blumenthal, PhD
  Professor and Chairman
  Department of Biochemistry
  School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
  SUNY at Buffalo
  Buffalo, N.Y.
  
  
• ISG15 signaling and the interferon response
  Arthur L. Haas, Ph.D.
  Roland Coulson Professor and Head
  Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
  New Orleans, LA
  
  
• Molecular and Cellular Effects of Human Polymorphic Variants of NADPH-Cytochrome P450 Reductase
  Bettie Sue Masters, Ph.D., D.Sc., M.D. (Hon.)
  The Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor in Chemistry
  Department of Biochemistry
  The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  San Antonio, TX
  
  
• "DNA mobile elements and the lateral transfer of a DNA polymerase gene across species barriers"
  Jim D. Karam, PhD
  Professor & Chair
  Department of Biochemistry
  Tulane University HSC
  
  
• Elucidating the functions of translational initiation factor eIF4E (cap-binding protein) in mammalian cells and C. elegans
  Robert E. Rhoads, Professor and Head
  Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
  Shreveport, LA
  
  
• "Bioenergetics - molecular mechanisms in biological energy conversion"
  Colin A. Wraight
  Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Plant Biology
  Head, Department of Biochemistry
  University of Illinois
  Urbana, IL