Nikolaus Pfanner: Annual Sir John Walker Lecturer 2020
The MBU's Annual Lecture, initiated in 2003 by Professor Sir John Walker, FRS, the Unit's Director from 1998-2012, was known as The Sir William Dunn Lecture, in memory of the Unit's founding benefactor. In 2009, the Unit was re-named the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in recognition of the Unit’s world-wide reputation in research into mitochondria and the growing evidence of their involvement in human diseases. In 2013, the Lecture series was re-named The Sir John Walker Lecture to mark his vision and leadership in the development and growth of the Unit in mitochondrial research during his Directorship. The Lecture series continues to reflect the Unit's major research themes into mitochondria.
Annual Sir John Walker Lecturers
2020 Professor Nikolaus Pfanner (University of Freiburg, Germany)
‘Mitochondrial machineries for import and assembly of proteins’ (Date to be confirmed)
2019 David Sabatini (Harvard University, USA)
‘Regulation of Growth and Metabolism by the mTOR Pathway’
2018 Vamsi Mootha (MIT and Harvard University, USA)
‘Genomics Approaches to Mitochondrial Physiology and Disease’
2017 Rosario Rizzuto (University of Padova, Italy)
‘The Molecular Calcium Reporter: Molecular Identity and Physiological Role’
2016 Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, FRS (University of Cambridge, UK)
‘Using Electron Microscopy to Study Mitochondrial Ribosomes’
2015 Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, FRS (University of Cambridge, UK)
‘Human Obesity: Causes and Consequences’
2014 Nick Lane (University College, London, UK)
‘Bioenergetic Constraints on the Evolution of Cells’
2013 Douglas Wallace (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA)
‘A Mitochondrial Etiology of Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases, Cancer and Aging’
The Sir William Dunn Lecturers
2012 Cancelled because of the death of Gottfried Schatz (University of Basel, Switzerland)
2011 Jeff Errington, FRS (Newcastle University, UK)
‘L-form Bacteria, Mitochondria, and the Origins of Cellular Life’
2010 Gerard Evan, FRS (University of Cambridge, UK)
‘Modelling New Strategies to Treat Cancer’
2009 Jodi Nunnari (University of California, Davis, USA)
‘The Machines that Divide and Fuse Mitochondria’
2008 Bruce Spiegelman (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston University, USA)
‘Transcriptional Basis of Energy Homeostasis in Health and Disease’
2007 David Nicholls, FRS (Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, USA)
‘Mitochondria in the Life and Death of the Brain’
2006 Michael Yaffe (University of California at San Diego, USA)
‘Mechanisms of Mitochondrial Distribution and Inheritance’
2005 Cancelled because of the death of Stanley Korsmeyer (Harvard University, USA)
2004 Douglas Wallace (University of California, Irvine, USA)
‘Ancient Origins-Modern Diseases: A Mitochondrial Connection’
2003 Bruce Ames, FRS (University of California at Berkeley, USA)
‘A Tetabolic Tune-up to Optimize Health’
For further information about the Annual Lectures, please contact our Communications Manager, Penny Peck.