How do our cells die and why is their death an essential part of life? A lecture next Monday at University College Cork entitled "From Gene Jockey to Entrepreneur" will have the answers.
The talk will be given by Prof Tom Cotter, the current RDS/Irish Times Boyle Laureate. He was the 1999 recipient of the biennial Boyle Medal, an award given to honour excellence in scientific research.
He won the medal for his work on the natural process of programmed cell death, called apoptosis. Without apoptosis there can be no life. Each year we lose about half our body weight in cells, which must die to make way for new cells.
As the Boyle Laureate, Prof Cotter will give three public lectures explaining his work and will use non-technical language so the lecture can be easily understood.
The first takes place on Monday, November 13th at 7 p.m. in Devere Hall/Student Centre on the UCC campus. The second is scheduled for NUI Galway on Thursday, November 15th and the third will be at Queen's University Belfast. The lectures are free and open to the public.
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