Nobel Laureate Dr. Randy Schekman visits USM for guest lecture on Jan. 23

Nobel Laureate Dr. Randy Schekman will share his research related to cell membrane vesicle trafficking during a guest lecture on Jan. 23 at The University of Southern Mississippi's Joe Paul Student Theater. The free lecture, which begins at 3 p.m., is sponsored by the School of Polymer Science and Engineering, Mississippi IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), Honors College – University Forum, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Vice President for Research.

Schekman is a professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Berkeley. His lecture to USM's audience is titled: “Sorting of Small RNAs into Extracellular Vesicles Secreted by Human Cells.”

Dr. Yoan C. Simon, assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering, said not only is this is a unique opportunity to bring to campus the 2013 Nobel laureate for Physiology or Medicine, but Schekman is also a big proponent of making scientific literature available to the public and a savvy communicator capable of reaching out to the layperson.

“When we got an opportunity to bring Dr. Schekman on campus, I was really excited,” Simon said. “Not only is he evidently a leader in his field, but he also has some very stimulating views on science and its development, including for instance open-access publishing.”

“The latter is already redefining the way science is being conducted and disseminated to scientists and to the public,” Simon added. “His research on the machinery of vesicle trafficking is inspiring beyond the mere biological realm, and actually inspires us as polymer scientists working on things such as polymeric vesicles and active membranes.”

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, and Thomas C. Südhof "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells."