NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series

All lectures this upcoming season will be in Lipsett Amphitheater at 2:00 p.m. ET and be viewable live on VideoCast at https://videocast.nih.gov, unless noted otherwise.

In the meantime, you should binge-watch this past year and archives dating back more than 20 years at https://videocast.nih.gov/PastEvents?c=3
or on our YouTube Channel.

Sign up for notices about each lecture.

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.

Mechanisms of Phage-Derived Protein Antibiotic

William M. (Bil) Clemons, Jr., Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

NIH Director’s Lecture

As antimicrobial resistance continues to expand, new ideas are required to address the growing threat. Phages, viruses of bacteria, offer many lessons that can be leveraged as opportunities to combat bacteria. In this lecture, Prof. Clemons will describe how some phages have developed simple, protein-based mechanisms for breaking through the bacterial cell wall and killing their host. These protein antibiotics can work independent of the phage, yet for years their mechanisms have remained mysterious. The mechanisms for several of these will be revealed.

Structure-Based Vaccine Antigen Design

Jason McLellan, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Molecular Biology

Rolla E. Dyer Lecture

Structure-based vaccine design aims to exploit knowledge of an antigen's architecture to stabilize it in a vulnerable conformation and elicit protective antibodies against one or more epitopes. Viral fusion proteins are excellent targets for structure-based vaccine design because they fold into several distinct conformations required to promote viral entry and membrane fusion. During this talk, the general principles of structure-based vaccine design and their application to the development of vaccine antigens for licensed RSV and COVID-19 vaccines will be discussed.

This page was last updated on Monday, January 8, 2024