Dr. Brenner is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Crick-Jacobs Center at the Jonas Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. Dr. Brenner is one of the 20th century's leading pioneers in genetics and molecular biology. Among his many notable discoveries, Dr. Brenner established the existence of messenger RNA and demonstrated how the order of amino acids in proteins is determined.
His research on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegan has critical implications for understanding a range of diseases, including cancer, AIDS, strokes, and neurodegenerative diseases. His work with C. elegans, which is a tiny transparent worm no larger than a pencil lead, was groundbreaking and led the way toward the first genetic mapping of a multicellular organism and contributed in significant ways to the development of the Human Genome Project. Through his focus on the worm, Dr. Brenner set the stage for the understanding of apoptosis, or cell suicide.
The David Packard Lecture is the premiere invited lecture sponsored by the faculty at USU each academic year. The lecture is named after USU's second president, The Honorable David Packard, who served as the University president from 1976 to 1981. Packard was also a former deputy secretary of defense (1969 to1971) and co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company.
USU, which is located on the grounds of the National Naval Medical Center, is the nation's federal school of medicine and graduate school of nursing. The students are active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Public Health Service and federal civilians, who are being educated to deal with wartime casualties, national disasters, emerging infectious diseases and other public health emergencies. Many of the university's graduates are currently supporting operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, offering both their leadership and expertise. Approximately one-fourth of all military medical officers currently serving on active duty are graduates of USU.
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