The Covid-19 pandemic gave poignant evidence of vaccines being one of the most remarkable achievements of biomedical science. In this year’s Ef Racker Lecturer in Biology and Medicine, vaccine pioneer Peter Kim ’79 will explore how vaccines work and provide an overview of some of the most influential vaccines in history. He’ll examine the scientific breakthroughs behind the development of vaccines for cervical cancer and COVID-19 and discuss the ongoing challenge of why a vaccine for HIV continues to be elusive.
The talk, “Preventing Diseases with Vaccines,” will be held on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. in Rm. G10, Biotechnology Building. The lecture is free and the public is invited. A reception will follow at 8 p.m.
"We are especially excited that this year’s Racker Lecturer is Peter Kim, who discovered the mechanism by which viral membranes fuse with cells as the critical first step in virus infection, which then laid the foundation for the eventual development of Covid-19 vaccines,” said Richard Cerione, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of molecular medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Kim is currently working on novel strategies to block virus infection through the development of new types of anti-viral antibodies and drugs.
On Friday, Oct. 4, Kim will give a scientific lecture on “New Frontiers for Vaccines against Infectious Disease” at 4 p.m. in G10 Biotechnology Building. A reception will follow at 5 p.m.
An alum of the Department of Chemistry (A&S), Kim is the Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine and an Institute Scholar of Sarafan ChEM-H at Stanford. He is also a senior investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco.
From 2003-13 he was president of Merck Research Laboratories and oversaw the development of more than 20 new medicines and vaccines, including JANUVIA, GARDASIL, ISENTRESS, ZOSTAVAX, and KEYTRUDA. Previously, he served as professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Kim is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Engineering.
Established in 1992, the annual Elf Racker Lecture series is hosted by the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and honors Efraim Racker, who during his scientific career made seminal contributions to our understanding of basic cell metabolism and its role both in normal physiology and in diseases such as cancer. The Racker Lectures bring eminent scientists to Cornell who have made important contributions in the fields of biology, chemistry and medicine. Each scientist presents a public and an academic-technical lecture related to Racker’s research.
Linda B. Glaser is news and media relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences.
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