Catalina Lara, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Seville, will give on the 11 November the lecture ‘Las mujeres en la Bioquímica y la Biología Molecular’ (‘Women in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’). The session starts at 19:00 in the Aula Magna of the University of Valencia (Cultural Centre La Nau). The lecture is part of the programming organised by the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and by VLC/CAMPUS International Campus of Excellence.
In over one hundred years as an independent science, Biochemistry has also been built by women, although it is unusual for this to appear in manuals or histories of science. It surprises people when they know, for example, that the first genetic diseases due to defects in carbohydrate metabolism enzymes were described by a woman, Gerty Gori; that the structure of penicillin, without which it would have been impossible to produce it on an industrial scale, the structure of the vitamin B12 and that of the insulin, were determined by another woman, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin; that the work of Rosalind Franklin was decisive in the discovery of DNA structure or, more recently, that Françoise Barré-Sinoussi discovered the AIDS virus, for what she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008. These are just small samples of the many biochemist and molecular biologist women who seem to be invisible. In order to help this from happening, from the “Divulgación Ciencia para todos” team of the SEBBM (Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), it has been promoted the creation of a Portrait Gallery of Women in Biochemistry, as well as a travelling Exhibition which can be visited until 11 November in the cloister of the Cultural Centre La Nau of the University of Valencia. The very same day at 19:00, in the Aula Magna, Catalina Lara, Professor of the University of Seville, will talk about these scientists, of their achievements and their difficulties, as well as the major advances in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the past decades.
Catalina Lara is Professor of Biochemistry y Molecular Biology of the University of Seville has studied several aspects of the photosynthetic metabolism of plants and algae. She has devoted much effort to the dissemination of women’s role in the development of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology through articles, books, lectures and exhibitions.
Professor Lara’s lecture is part of the programming organised by the SEBBM, VLC/CAMPUS International Campus of Excellence – composed by the University of Valencia, the Universidad Politècnica de València and the CSIC –, the Chair for Scientific Dissemination UCC+I and the Equality Unit of the University of Valencia, the Delegation of the CSIC in the Valencian Community and l’Espai Ciència (Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Acció Cultural del País Valencià, Octubre Centre de Cultura Contemporània) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the SEBBM. This scientific society has currently more than 3700 partners and is the main scientific group in our country that coordinates the large activity related to Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Among the most important objectives of the SEBBM stand out: promoting research, promote the transfer of knowledge, improve teaching, assist the contact between Spanish researchers, contribute to the international expansion of Spanish science, disseminate to society the scientific aspects of public interest and, ultimately, to contribute to the fact that science has an increasingly important role in our country.
The celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the SEBBM seek the citizen’s participation so they can engage more deeply with science. The main objective is to inform, entertain and promote the interest in science, in addition to promote scientific vocations among the young.
Portraits Gallery of Women in Biochemistry
Last update: 11 de november de 2013 09:34.
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