Nobel winners to speak
at conference

Two Nobel Prize winners will speak at the Hawaii Bioscience Conference this month at the Hawaii Convention Center.

About 300 people are expected to attend the Jan. 13-14 conference, planned to coincide with the opening of the new University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine complex in Kakaako.

The public may attend the keynote talks by Dr. J. Michael Bishop, chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, and David Baltimore, president of California Institute of Technology.

Bishop won the 1975 Nobel prize in medicine for virology research. He is a leader in efforts to create an AIDS vaccine, serving on the National Institute of Health and National Academy of Science committees on AIDS research. He will speak at a Jan. 13 luncheon session on "Modeling Human Cancer in the Mouse." The ticket price is $45. Call 521-3611, extension 12, for information.

Baltimore was awarded the 1989 Nobel in medicine for his discovery of specific genes for cancer, which contributed to the understanding of cancer. The ticket price for his Jan. 14 luncheon talk on "Bringing Science to Medicine: the Interface Problem" is also $45.

UH Medical School Dean Ed Cadman said the conference will showcase the $150 million school and its Biosciences Building, which has 182,000 square feet of research laboratory space.

Venture capitalists as well as scientists were invited to the conference in the state's effort to make the school a catalyst for high tech business.

Fifteen other distinguished scientists will speak at the conference, including Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Five UH scientists will speak:

» Ryuzo Yanagimachi, professor of anatomy and reproductive biology, the first scientist to clone mice.

» Dr. Ken Ward, professor and director of the Pacific Center for Research on Early Human Development, who was recently awarded a $10 million grant in the field of medical genetics.

» Dr. Richard Yanigahara, professor in public health science and medical microbiology, who guides infectious disease studies.

» Marla Berry, professor of cell and molecular biology, who is studying antioxidants and their effects on aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

» Duane J. Gubler, director of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases.

The $425 cost of the two-day conference includes breakfasts, lunches and the reception and tour of the new medical school campus. The deadline for registration is Jan. 7. For information, call 922-0011 or 521-3611, ext. 12.