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In recent years, the extraordinary momentum of molecular biology has allowed the rigorous and deep analysis of essential questions about the nature of life and human disease. Thus, the molecular scrutiny of aging and the possibilities of extending life have begun to figure a prominent place in the group of scientific problems subjected to new look. The human genome has 3,000 million nucleotides and about 25,000 genes that generate a harmonic universe of possible messages that make every moment of life in each of us. Why all this molecular harmony is lost and the cells are weakened, the tissues lose their names, and body ages until finally surrenders? In his lecture, Professor Carlos López-Otín will present recent work from his laboratory aimed at trying to provide answers to these questions.

 

Carlos López-Otín is a Full-University Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Oviedo. His professional work has also developed in the Ramón y Cajal Centre and “Severo Ochoa” Molecular Biology Centre in Madrid, and the University of Lund in Sweden, and New York and Harvard in the U.S. Currently, he combines teaching at the University of Oviedo with the development of  lines of research on cancer, aging and functional analysis of genomes. The group's work has been directed to the identification of 60 novel human genes and analysis of their roles in tumour progression and other normal and pathological processes.

 

He has also contributed to the annotation and characterization of the human genome and other organisms of biomedical and evolutionary interest as the chimpanzee. Since 2010, he co-directs the Spanish contribution to the International Cancer Genome Consortium, who has deciphered the genome and the epigenome of hundreds of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Among the more recent work of his group include the discovery of anti-tumour proteases, the discovery of a new hereditary syndrome of accelerated aging, the development of a treatment for Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria, the identification of two genes that slow larynx cancer and the definition of the molecular key to human aging. Professor López-Otín is a member of several academies and has won numerous awards, including the European Prize FEBS in Biochemistry, the Dupont Prize in Life Sciences, the Echevarne Prize in Oncology, the "Carmen and Severo Ochoa Prize" in Molecular Biology, The Cobos Prize in Biomedical Research, the Mexico Prize in Science and Technology, the Jaime I Prize in Research and the National Research Prize "Santiago Ramón y Cajal".

 

The Excellence Meetings is an initiative of International Campus Programme of Excellence VLC/CAMPUS. Valencia, International Campus of Excellence is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. The aim of these programs is to encourage annual talent through conferences, meetings and dialogues by Nobel prizes and excellent scientists with research students in the areas of specialization of VLC/CAMPUS: Health, Sustainability and Information and Communication Technologies.

 

López- Otín conference closes the sessions that since last October were held in Valencia recalling the founding of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM) 50 years ago. This programme has been organized by the SEBBM, VLC/CAMPUS International Campus of Excellence - composed by the University of València, Universitat Politècnica de València and CSIC, the Chair for Scientific Dissemination UCC + I and Equality Unit of the University of Valencia, the CSIC in Valencia and l' Espai Ciència (Institut d' Estudis Catalans, Cultural Action of Valencian Country, October Contemporary Culture Centre).

 

The SEBBM currently has over 3,700 members and is the largest scientific group that coordinates in our country the extensive activity related to Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Among the most important objectives of the SEBBM are included: promoting research, encouraging the transfer of knowledge, improving teaching, favouring contact between Spanish researchers, contributing to the international expansion of Spanish science, disseminating and publicizing the scientific aspects of society public interest and, ultimately, contributing to the fact that science has an increasingly important role in our country.

 

The celebrations of the 50^th anniversary of the SEBBM seek citizen participation so that you can approach and engage more deeply with science. The main objective is to inform, entertain and promote interest in science, and to promote scientific vocations among the young.