Rudolf Jaenisch

The 7 p.m. public lecture will feature Rudolf Jaenisch, a founding member of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., and a biological sciences professor at MIT. Jaenisch created the first transgenic animal models in the 1970s, showing that DNA sequences could be integrated into a mouse genome and passed on to its offspring. He also conducted the first experiment showing that therapeutic cloning could correct genetic defects in mice.

Jaenisch, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is well known for his research in therapeutic cloning with mice, which involves transplanting genetic information from one cell into an unfertilized egg from which DNA has been removed. Jaenisch has called for using the same techniques with human cells to advance embryonic stem cell research, but he opposes human reproductive cloning.

“The topic of this year’s Townsend Lecture is timely—the federal government has restricted development of new lines of stem cell research—and it should stimulate a lively discourse on the ethics and science of this research,” said Richard Showman, a USC biological sciences professor who is coordinating the Townsend Lecture.

In addition to presenting the lecture, Jaenisch will meet with Honors College students and other undergraduates for an informal seminar. A brief question and answer session will follow his public lecture.

The Townsend Lecture began in 1998 with an endowment from J. Ives Townsend, a 1941 USC graduate. The fall Townsend Lectures focus on culture in the South, and spring lectures focus on the impact of biological sciences on society.

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