event

20th Annual Suddath Symposium

Primary tabs

Celebrating its 20th year in 2012, this symposium is held annually to celebrate the life and contributions of "Bud" Suddath by discussing the latest developments in the fields of bioengineering and bioscience. The speakers include leading researchers from across the country.

A variety of human diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Huntington's diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, possibly type II diabetes and others, are caused by self-assembled highly ordered aggregates of misfolded proteins (amyloids and neural inclusions) and represent a serious challenge to health care. Many of these diseases are fatal, most are incurable and some are age-dependent, so that their impact will only grow with the eradication of other diseases and an increase in human life span. Infectious amyloids (prions) cause transmissible encephalopathies (such as "mad cow" disease) and may spread, for example from domestic animals to humans consuming infected meat. At least some other amyloids are also transmissible at cellular level. Studies of prion proteins in lower eukaryotes such as yeast have demonstrated that amyloid disorders originate from malfunctioning of the evolutionarily conserved mechanisms, governing the assembly of multi-molecular structures and contributing to epigenetic transfer of heritable information. Some amyloids play biologically positive roles and/or have technological applications. Amyloid is proposed to be an ancient protein fold potentially involved in emergence of structures in prebiotic world. Studies of prions and other aggregates of misfolded proteins are important for both finding long-term solutions for amyloid disorders and understanding the molecular basis of protein evolution.

On behalf of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Center for Nanobiology of the Macromolecular Assembly Disorders (NanoMAD), we look forward to welcoming you to this exciting event.

Keynote Speaker
Reed B. Wickner, MD - National Academy of Science Member, National Institute of Health

Invited Speakers
Georges Belfort, PhD - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Andreas Bommarius - Georgia Tech Neil Cashman, MD FRCP(C) CAHS - University of British Columbia
Yury Chernoff, PhD - Georgia Tech
Vincent Conticello, PhD - Emory University
Judith Frydman, PhD - Stanford University School of Medicine
Jonathan King, PhD - Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Raquel Lieberman, PhD - Georgia Tech David Lynn - Emory University
Claudio Soto, PhD - University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Lary Walker, PhD - Emory University School of Medicine
Keith Wilkinson, PhD - Emory University School of Medicine

The 2012 Suddath Symposium is organized by Yury Chernoff, PhD, Professor of Biology at Georgia Tech, and Director of Center for NanoMAD, with assistance from Center for NanoMAD members. Program was composed by Dr. Chernoff and Center for NanoMAD Committee, that includes Andreas Bommarius, PhD, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech, and David Lynn, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Biology at Emory University. The meeting received financial support from the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, with a contribution from Center for NanoMAD. 

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Colly Mitchell
  • Created:12/05/2011
  • Modified By:Fletcher Moore
  • Modified:10/07/2016