Symposium will focus on developmental biology

When former University of Wisconsin–Madison genetics professor Oliver Smithies won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, he dedicated a portion of his prize money to start a symposium to bring top biologists to campus as a resource for students, faculty, and staff.

The sixth annual Oliver Smithies Symposium will be held Wednesday, May 29, beginning at 1:15 p.m. in the Ebling Symposium Center in the Microbial Sciences Building, 1550 Linden Drive. It is free and open to the public.

Three highly accomplished scientists will present their research on mechanisms of developmental biology.

• 1:30 p.m.: Eric Wieschaus, Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and 1995 Nobel laureate, will speak on “Gastrulation and the Mechanics of Cell Shape Change in Drosophila.”
• 2:30 p.m.: Kathryn Anderson, chair of the developmental biology program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute and winner of the 2012 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal, will present “Cilia, Centrosomes and Signaling in the Mouse Embryo.”
• 3:30 p.m.: Jonathan Epstein, William Wikoff Smith Professor of Cardiovascular Research at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, will discuss “Molecular Mechanisms of Cardiac Development.”