The Gladstone Institutes 2009 Distinguished Lecture was presented on Friday, February 27, 2009 by Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, professor of biology and a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The lecture, entitled “Stem Cells, Pluripotency and Nuclear Reprogramming,” took place at 11:00 a.m. in the Robert W. Mahley Auditorium in the Gladstone building at the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Jaenisch's research focuses on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. These biological mechanisms affect how genetic information is converted into cell structures without altering the genes in the process. His pioneering research has made significant contribution to transgenic mice for exploring basic biological questions, such as the role of DNA modification, genomic imprinting, and X chromosome inactivation in mammalian development and disease, and more recently, the nature of embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent cells.
Dr. Jaenisch received an MD from the University of Munich in 1967. Before coming to Whitehead, he was head of the Department of Tumor Virology at the Heinrich Pette Institute at the University of Hamburg. He has coauthored more than 300 research papers and received numerous awards and prizes. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.
 

Since 1993, Gladstone has presented the Gladstone Distinguished Lecture series, featuring preeminent scientists discussing their key areas of research.