UTSA launches President's Distinguished Lecture series

Nobel Prize winner Mario Capecchi addresses advances in disease research

The University of Texas at San Antonio hosts the recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D., as the inaugural speaker for UTSA’s President’s Distinguished Lecture Series at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 14th in the Main Building Auditorium Room 0.104 on the 1604 Campus.

Capecchi’s presentation “Gene Targeting in the 21st Century: Mouse Models of Human Disease from Cancer to Psychiatric Disorders,” focuses on his development of a gene-targeting technique, altering genes in embryonic stem cells, that has revolutionized the study of human disease by creating animal models for hundreds of diseases including cancer, heart disease, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease.

“Part of our journey towards becoming a top-100 public research university, will be sharing with the community opportunities to learn from premier researchers,” said Dr. Ricardo Romo, president of UTSA. “Dr. Mario Capecchi is a leader in his field, a mentor to one of our own faculty members and a stellar example of the caliber of speakers we hope to attract as the lecture series continues.”

Capecchi received his doctoral degree in biophysics from Harvard University and his bachelor’s of science degrees in chemistry and physics from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Born in 1937 during World War II, Capecchi wandered the streets of Verona, Italy for four years while his mother was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. After the war, they reunited and eventually came to the United States to live.

The UTSA President’s Distinguished Lecture Series will feature internationally
recognized scholars who are engaged in traditional research and activities, as well as those whose contributions are in the creative fields of architecture, fine arts and music.