Nobel Laureates Deliver Lectures at IIT Gandhinagar

Nobel Laureates delivered lectures at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar as part of Nobel Prize Series 2017 on January 11, 2017. Dr. Randy Schekman and Dr. Harold Varmus from the field of medicine delivered their talk and interacted with students on different themes.

Dr. Haraold Varmus delivered his lecture on how cells become cancerous and how to tackle it. He stressed on targeted therapy for patients with cancer and its significance, especially for India. The focus must be laid on understanding the cause of cancer rather than focusing on controlling the cell division in the body. While tackling these problems, care and counselling play a major role, he revealed.

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Dr. Schekman delivered a lecture of how cells export proteins. He stated that he and his students virtually deciphered the fundamentals of eukaryotic membrane traffic. He further added that he started his scientific journey right from childhood and brought a microscope with the money that he earned for the first time.

Dr. Ada Yonat, Nobel Laureate in the field of Chemistry also interacted with the students at Gujarat University Convention Hall. He explained that the traces of antibiotics would remain in the ground even when discarded. These antibiotics further penetrate into grass which is consumed by cattle.

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He further explained that there is a need to come up with a new generation of antibiotics which are degradable and do not cause resistance. It can be made possible only by formulating pathogen-specific antibiotics that will change the chemical property of antibiotics which will be degradable and anti-resistant.