Bioscience pioneers to speak
during DBI dedication events

Life sciences giants Norman Borlaug, Sydney Brenner and Craig Venter will present inaugural lectures on the campus to help celebrate the April 26 dedication of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute's new research facility. The University community is invited to attend.

Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug and renowned researcher Sydney Brenner will present their perspectives on bioscience in the 21st century from 2-4 p.m., Thursday, April 26, in Mitchell Hall.

Borlaug is a plant breeder and humanitarian who has dedicated more than six decades of his life to the fight to end hunger around the world. The father of the "Green Revolution," he has been credited with saving more lives than any other person who has ever lived.

He holds the rank of Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M, where he still teaches, and where the Norman E. Borlaug Center for Southern Crop Improvement recently was named in his honor. Brenner is a Distinguished Professor at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. He also is president of the Molecular Sciences Institute, in Berkeley, Calif., an institute he founded to pursue interdisciplinary research in genomics, genetics and computational biology.

Brenner's contributions to science are legendary. They begin with his role in establishing the existence of messenger RNA (mRNA) in copying from DNA the genetic instructions the cell uses to make proteins. His pioneering achievements laid the foundation for today's revolution in the life sciences.

On Saturday, April 28, J. Craig Venter, CEO of Celera Genomics, will speak from 1-2:30 p.m. at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, 15 Innovation Way, Newark. Venter earned the grudging respect of even his most outspoken critics when on June 26, 2000, Celera announced its success in deciphering virtually all the 3.1 billion chemical codes that make up human DNA. Venter is in Delaware to accept the Common Wealth Award.

The Delaware Biotechnology Institute is a University, government and private sector collaboration, building a network of multidisciplinary faculty researchers to drive scientific discovery and technology growth in Delaware.