Mitsch Lecture Examines "The Aging Brain" 

Hamline University invites the public to the 11th Annual 3M/Ronald A. Mitsch Lecture in Chemistry today, November 13, featuring Dr. Gregory Petsko, professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacodynamics and chair of the Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University. The event is free and open to all.

Petsko will explore “The Aging Brain and What We are Trying To Do About It.” Through the study of the three-dimensional structures and biochemical functions of proteins, he will bring a chemical perspective to bear on problems in biochemistry, structural biology, cell biology, and human health. 

The lecture will take place today, Friday, November 13 at 12:45 p.m. in Sundin Music Hall located at 1531 Hewitt Avenue on Hamline University’s Saint Paul campus. For more information, contact Tracy Sparby at 651-523-2707.

In addition to his role at Brandeis, Petsko is also an adjunct professor for the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and is president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he completed his doctoral research. He was an assistant professor of biochemistry at Wayne State University School of Medicine and later served as an associate professor of chemistry and then as professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1990, he was appointed the Lucille P. Markey Professor in Biochemistry and Chemistry at Brandeis University.  He has served as director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center at Brandeis University, and, since 1996, he has held the title of Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacodynamics there. 

Petsko has received numerous awards, including the Sidhu Award of the American Crystallographic Association for outstanding contributions to X-ray diffraction, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, and an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. He was also awarded the Max Planck Prize for work on the origins of some human cancers and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Mitsch Lectures are part of the 3M/Ronald A. Mitsch Endowed Fund in Chemistry, established in 1998 by the 3M Foundation in recognition and appreciation of Dr. Ronald A. Mitsch, a 1956 graduate of the College of Liberal Arts. The 3M/Ronald A. Mitsch Endowed Fund is intended to promote new connections and pioneering efforts between education and industry as an essential basis for the education of chemists who are prepared
to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century and beyond.