Keynote speakers: Professor Warwick Anderson, University of Sydney; Dr Julie Anderson, University of Kent

The third keynote speaker will be Dr Peter Sullivan, whose field is Polar Medicine

A Witness Seminar on the topic of apoptosis will be held on the last afternoon of the conference, hosted by John Pearn and Roger Wilkinson.

Apoptosis, its Discovery, Development and Significance in Medicine

Apoptosis is a distinctive type of cell death. It is one of the most important phenomena in all of biology and medicine. Pronounced  “AP-O-TOW-SIS”, it is an ancient Greek word meaning the dying and falling of leaves, as from deciduous trees in the late Autumn. In the last ten years, from 2001, apoptosis is the most discussed and mentioned topic in biology and medicine. Of the 6.3 million refereed papers in the international medical literature in the last decade, some 145,000 papers discuss apoptosis (compared with 126,000 papers on HIV-AIDS and 101,000 on breast cancer).

Apoptosis is sometimes described as programmed cell death. The phenomenon is under genetic control. It is distinct from cell death due to necrosis. Unlike necrosis, apoptosis does not engender any inflammatory response. Apoptosis is the manner in which the embryo is sculpted, some areas growing by mitosis and other areas being “sculpted” or reduced by apoptosis. Apoptosis occurs spontaneously in tissues and organs and is the process by which tissues are remoulded during regeneration and scar formation. It is widespread in cancer tissues. It is conjectured that the ultimate cure for cancer will be associated with stimuli which will activate apoptotic mechanisms in cancerous cells and their precursors.

Apoptosis was discovered by the Brisbane pathologist, Professor John Kerr. In a milestone paper in the British Journal of Cancer [Kerr JFR, Wyllie AH, Currie AR. Apoptosis: A basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics. Br J Cancer 1972; 26: 239-257], apoptosis was formally described and named. Over the ensuing decade, in Brisbane, Professor Kerr and his students (especially Dr Jeff Searle, and Dr Michael Harrison and the microscopists David Collins and Brian Harmon) published the definitive papers which established apoptosis as an ubiquitous kinetic process in all vertebrate tissues.

This Witness Seminar will bring together the principals of this story; with first-person accounts of the discovery of apoptosis, the evolution of its understanding; and the interpretation of its universal significance in biology.

JOHN PEARN

Program at a Glance

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Program in Detail

The program is subject to change. If you would like to download a printable copy of the detailed program, correct as of July 8th, click here.

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