Nobel Prize winner to speak at Campbell

     Dr. Richard J. Roberts, Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, will speak on Friday, Sept. 22, at 10:30 a.m. in Turner Auditorium of the D. Rich Memorial building. Roberts’ discovery of “split genes” in higher organisms was a breakthrough in biological and medical research concerning the development of cancer and other diseases. Admission is free and open to the public. Roberts’ visit to the Campbell campus is made possible by the Campbell University School of Pharmacy.
     In the mid-1970s, it was generally accepted that genes existed as continuous segments within a DNA molecule. This view changed radically when Roberts discovered that in higher organisms an individual gene can comprise several DNA segments separated by chunks of irrelevant DNA. Roberts also discovered an elegant editing process that happens within the cell. This process is called Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) Splicing in which irrelevant chunks of genetic material are removed and the relevant segments are connected together to create messenger RNA. Messenger RNA then ensures that proteins are successfully made from the genetic instructions coded in the DNA molecule.
     A researcher at New England Biolabs in Lipswich, Mass., Roberts was born in Derby, England, and grew up in the city of Bath. He graduated from the University of Sheffield with Bachelors and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry. Roberts’ interest in chemistry developed into a strong desire to do research in molecular biology and he moved to the U.S. to complete postdoctoral studies in this field at Harvard University. His award-winning research was conducted at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine 1993. Roberts is currently a researcher in molecular biology and bioinformatics.

Photo Copy: Dr. Richard J. Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Medicine.