Joseph Larner Memorial Lecture In Pharmacology

Please join us on March 22nd, 2024, for the annual Joseph Larner Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology.

Our speaker, Ronald M. Evans, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Gene Expression Laboratory and March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He has recently been awarded the Japan Prize in the field of Medical Science and Pharmaceutical Science. The Japan Prize Foundation honors individuals whose original and outstanding achievements in science and technology have advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for humankind. To date, 108 laureates from 14 countries have received the Japan Prize since the first prize was given in 1985.

Ronald Evans is an authority on hormones, both their normal activities and their roles in disease. A major achievement in Evans’ lab was the discovery of a large family of molecules, called nuclear hormone receptors, which respond to various steroid hormones, vitamin A and thyroid hormones. These hormones help control sugar, salt, calcium and fat metabolism, affecting our daily health as well as treatment of disease. The receptors Evans discovered are primary targets in the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and leukemia, as well as osteoporosis and asthma.

In addition, Evans’ studies led to a new class of PPAR delta drugs called exercise mimetics, which promote the benefits of fitness without the need to train. Exercise mimetics represent an important advance in addressing problems arising from excess weight and obesity, such as frailty, muscular dystrophy and type 2 diabetes.

The talk will be held in the Leonard Sandridge Auditorium in McKim hall, with a breakfast to precede in McKim Hall 1023. Breakfast will be served starting at 8:45am and the talk will begin promptly at 9:30am.

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