Nobel Prize Laureates lecture in Armenia

Nobel Laureates Tim Hunt (Great Britan) and Martin Chalfie (US) delivered lectures for young Armenian scholars on Sunday.
The event, organized by the joint efforts of the Armenian Youth Foundation, the Union of Young Biologists, the Education Ministry's State Committee of Science and the Tufenkian Foundation, had brought together over 180 young scholars and students doing research in biomedicine, molecular biology and related disciplines.
According to a press release by the Armenian Youth Foundation, Hunts's lecture was devoted to the current problems in cancer. Noting that the disease occurs commonly among elderly people, the scholar said that certain forms of cancer have disappeared or become very rare in the past century. Instead, he mentioned, that other forms, such as lung cancer, have become widespread due to the increasing number of smokers, including women. Speaking of the harms of cigarette, Hunts said that it produces substances affecting the DNA. He said further that the cancer treatment has essentially improved.Hunts, who holds Nobel Prize in Physology or Medicine, emphasized the importance of removing all cancer cells to overcome the disease. He also addressed the causes and stages of cancer, introducing several scholars who have conducted studies in the sphere. Hunts has discovered protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells. He became a Nobel Laureate in 2001 together with Leland Hartwell and Sir Paul Nurse.
Chalfie, a holder of Nobel Prize in Chemistry, spoke of the green fluorescent proteins and the methods of their division. Chalfie was awarded with the honor in 2008 together with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Tsien.  Read more... (325 words)

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