DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) established the DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture in 1982 on the occasion of the institute’s 20th anniversary in honor of its third director, DeWitt “Hans” Stetten, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. Stetten was an esteemed biomedical researcher and administrator who had a varied biomedical career at and beyond the NIH. He first came to NIH in 1954 as associate director of intramural research at what was then called the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. Having made his imprint there, he left the NIH to serve as dean of the Rutgers University Medical School from 1962 to 1970. Then he returned to the NIH to become NIGMS director, where he was instrumental in shaping the modern successes of this institute. Among Stetten’s many accomplishments at NIGMS was the establishment of eight genetics centers across the United States that maintained a bank of cell lines representing genetic defects and sponsored basic and clinical programs for the identification of genetically transmitted diseases. He developed national guidelines for this genetic research, which was quite novel and exciting at the time. Stetten also was senior scientific adviser to the NIH director from 1979 to 1986. The NIH Stetten Museum was renamed in his honor in 1987.

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Glycinergic Neurotransmission​

Sudha Chakrapani, Ph.D.
Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

Glycine Receptors (GlyRs) at the inhibitory synapses in the spinal cord and brainstem are key players in regulating motor and sensory signals. Differential expression of GlyR subtype governs their widely differing physiological functions, ranging from muscle tone and respiratory rhythm to pain perception. GlyR dysfunctions are associated with epilepsy, chronic pain, addiction, and autism. Targeted regulation of specific GlyR subtypes will require a detailed understanding of their structure, function, and pharmacology.

Evolutionary Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2

Trevor Bedford, Ph.D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

Genomic epidemiology has enabled critical insights during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the forefront of these insights has been SARS-CoV-2’s remarkable potential for adaptive evolution. Dr. Bedford will discuss the evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 with a focus on the emergence of variant of concern and variant of interest viruses. He will characterize mutational patterns in these variant viruses and chart their spread across geographies.

Rethinking General Anesthesia

Emery N. Brown, M.D., Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

We have established a systems neuroscience (conceptual, experimental, data analysis and modeling) paradigm for studying the mechanisms of general anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness. Through this work my research group has established specific neurophysiological mechanisms for general-anesthesia-induced unconsciousness in humans, non-human primates and rodents, and approaches to precisely control the anesthetic state.

Scalable Platforms for Generating RNA Sensors and Controllers

Christina D. Smolke, Ph.D.
Stanford University

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

Whether animals are looking for food or mates, or avoiding pathogens and predators, they rely on biosensors—molecules that allow animals to sense and respond to their environments. Creating new kinds of biosensors to receive, process, and transmit molecular information is the focus of Dr. Smolke’s research. Her innovative approaches for designing biomolecules have applications in diagnostics, drug development, green chemistry, and more. Her lab has created RNA molecules, or switches, that can detect the disease state of a cell.

Understanding the source of regenerative ability in animals

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D.
Stowers Institute for Medical Research

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

Salamanders and starfish might be “simpler” than humans, but they far surpass us in one major way—the ability to regenerate tissues and regrow lost limbs. Dr. Sánchez Alvarado studies regeneration using the flatworm planaria Schmidtea mediterranea. Remarkably, when halved or quartered this organism can clone itself from the pieces. More than 100 years ago, that feat captured the attention of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan, who studied planarians years before his famed work on fruit flies. As astonishing as the planarian regenerative capacities are, Dr.

Computing cures: discovery through the lens of a computational microscope

Rommie E. Amaro, Ph.D.
UC San Diego

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

Dr. Amaro’s scientific interests lie at the intersection of computer-aided drug discovery and biophysical simulation methods. She has a long-standing interest in incorporating structural and dynamical information derived from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations in drug discovery programs, and has worked in a variety of disease areas, including infectious diseases and cancer. Her lab’s work on p53 revealed a novel druggable pocket that clarified the mechanism of action for a compound in clinical trials.

Elements of health and disease: inorganic fluxes and metal receptors that control cell fate decisions

Thomas O’Halloran, Ph.D.
Northwestern University

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

For the past three decades, Thomas V. O’Halloran has investigated how fluctuations in the amount of metal ions inside cells influence key cellular decisions. Using genetic, chemical, structural, and mechanistic approaches, he has uncovered new types of metal receptors and tied their function to a number of disease-related physiological processes. O’Halloran identified early examples of metal ion receptors called metalloregulatory proteins that regulate gene expression.

Form meets function: Structurally diverse cilia and their roles in sensory signaling

Piali Sengupta, Ph.D.
Brandeis University

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Lecture

Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles that are now known to be present on nearly all differentiated cell types in metazoans. Cilia house signaling molecules that transduce environmental cues and regulate cellular homeostasis and organismal development. Disruption of cilia structure or function is linked with a plethora of diseases termed ciliopathies, many of which are characterized by sensory defects.

This page was last updated on Thursday, November 2, 2023