US President’s advisor visits the UT Estonian Genome Center

On 12–14 December, Professor Eric Lander, the President and Founding Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and co-chair of US President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and his colleagues will visit Estonia. On 12 December at 16:30, Professor Lander will give a public lecture at the UT Estonian Genome Center (Riia 23B) entitled “Genetic Basis of Human Disease: The past and future of genomic medicine”.

The Broad Institute is the global centre of excellence in biosciences, dedicated to solving the most complicated tasks in biology and medicine. “They connect the studies of human genomics to the applications of medicine. They have great opportunities for that, as in addition to the researchers of the Broad Institute, they involve the best researchers from Harvard and MIT, plus the medical experience and development potential of four large hospitals in Boston,” said the Director of the UT Estonian Genome Center Andres Metspalu.

According to Metspalu, Lander’s visit to the University of Tartu is first and foremost motivated by his interest in the Estonian Genome Center and his wish to learn about the opportunities offered by the Estonian e-Health. “This means a great deal to the UT Estonian Genome Center, as it proves that our research and development activities so far have been significant,” said Metspalu.

According to Time magazine, Professor Lander is one of the 100 most influential people of our time. Lander is one of the world’s leading and most influential experts in genomics and Professor of Biology at MIT, who has devoted his career to studying the human genome and its applications in medicine.

Professor Lander will visit Estonia together with Stacey Gabriel, Anthony Philippakis, Sheila Fisher and Senior Research Fellow Tõnu Esko, Deputy Director of Research of the UT Estonian Genome Center who is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the Broad Institute.

Everybody is welcome to attend the lecture, which will also be webcast by the UTTV (www.uttv.ee).

For more information about Professor Lander, see the home page of the Broad Institute.

Additional information: Annely Allik, Manager of Communication of the Estonian Genome Center, tel: +372 737 4037, +372 50 299 70, email: annely.allik@ut.ee.