Thursday 12 January 2017
19:00
The Secret of Life: Chapter 2
With Oxford University Vice Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, Professor Alastair Buchan, Professor Dame Carol Robinson and Professor Susan Lea
In the 1950s, science was altered forever by the discovery of the structure of DNA and how genes work: we are now on the verge of a second transformation. The extraordinary convergence of breakthroughs across different scientific disciplines is driving a revolution in biomedical science and enabling us to study the complexity of cells for the first time. Cells are the fundamental units that make up our bodies; consequently, their malfunction underlies almost all disease. By learning how cells function at a mechanical level – what goes wrong with them, how we can fix them and how drugs work – scientists expect to develop entirely new approaches to combatting diseases of the 21st Century, such as dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions, cancer and infections associated with the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Oxford is the top ranked university in the world for medical science and its scientists are at the forefront of these efforts, bringing together the traditionally distinct areas of physical and life sciences to advance our understanding in this critical area.
Professor Louise Richardson is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and also serves on the boards of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and of several other charities.
Previously she served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews and spent 20 years on the faculty of the Harvard Government Department, latterly as Executive Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is a global authority on terrorism, whose path-breaking work, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat, precipitated a seismic shift in approaches to the study and tackling of terrorism.
Professor Louise Richardson is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and also serves on the boards of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and of several other charities.
Previously she served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews and spent 20 years on the faculty of the Harvard Government Department, latterly as Executive Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is a global authority on terrorism, whose path-breaking work, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat, precipitated a seismic shift in approaches to the study and tackling of terrorism.
