Krebs lecturer describes a new kinase signaling pathway

Dr. Lewis Cantley

Dr. Lewis Cantley, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Signal Transduction at Beth Israel Hospital, is a leader in the study of how cell growth and division is regulated by the biochemical process of phosphorylation.

He will present the 1998 Edwin G. Krebs Lecture in Molecular Pharmacology, sponsored by the Department of Pharmacology and supported by an endowment from Sterling Winthrop, Inc.

Cantley will speak on "Signaling via Phosphoinositide Kinases" at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 14, in room T-625 of the Health Sciences Center.

In a series of studies beginning in 1984, Cantley discovered a previously unknown group of kinases that phosphorylate phosphatidyinositol lipids to produce signaling molecules which he implicated in cellular growth control and in the development of cancerous cells. This signaling pathway is different from the hormone-sensitive kinase pathways identified earlier.

In addition, he devised a novel method to define the specificity of tyrosine kinases and to predict the "downstream" targets of protein kinase signaling cascades, which control many cellular processes.

His research has added a new dimension to understanding the functions of kinases in cellular regulation by demonstrating their role in phosphorylating key phospholipid signaling molecules that regulate cell growth and differentiation.

Cantley earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Cornell University in 1975 and then was a postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard. From 1985 until he returned to Harvard in 1992, he was a faculty member at Tufts University School of Medicine.

He has been an American Heart Association Established Investigator and a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award winner. He is a member of the scientific advisory boards for the A.T. Children's Fund, New England Biolabs and Cell Therapeutics, Inc., and has served on review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

The lecture is named for Dr. Edwin Krebs, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1992 with Dr. Edmond Fischer, UW professor emeritus of biochemistry. Krebs is UW professor emeritus of pharmacology and biochemistry. He is known throughout the world for his pioneering work in unraveling the complex pathways by which hormones and drugs regulate cellular function.

Krebs, who maintains an active research program, first joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1948, He was chair of the Department of Pharmacology from 1977 until 1983. He has received many other honors for his fundamental work on protein kinases and their role in cellular regulation. ¶