Feb 28, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

Christopher T. Walsh, Hamilton Kuhn Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, will present the Mindlin Lecture titled, "How Pathogenic Bacteria Evade Mammalian Sabotage in the Battle for Iron," on Tuesday, Mar. 7, at 7 p.m. in Galileo-McAlister Hall at Harvey Mudd College, 301 Platt Blvd.

Walsh is a leader in the field of enzyme biochemistry, particularly for his findings on natural product biosynthesis and enzyme reaction mechanisms. Walsh's achievements include uncovering how disease-causing enterococci can make themselves resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin, how antibiotics such as gramicidin and tyrocidine are naturally synthesized by bacteria, and how bacteria use iron-binding substances called siderophores to control important aspects of microbial virulence. Each of these projects has vital implications for future drug research.

Walsh served from 1996 to 1999 on the National Institutes of Health General Medical Sciences Council and is a scientific advisor to the structural biology programs at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has had extensive consultation with large pharmaceutical companies and has served on the scientific advisory boards and/or boards of directors of several biotechnology companies dealing with cancer, immunotherapy, enzyme replacement therapy, inflammation and infectious disease.

Walsh was an undergraduate researcher in the laboratory of Konrad Bloch when Bloch won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964 for his cholesterol research. Walsh received his undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University, his Ph.D. in life sciences from Rockefeller University, and was a postdoctoral fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation at Brandeis University. He began his faculty career at MIT in 1972 and ultimately held two chaired professorships before moving to Harvard Medical School in 1987. Among numerous honors, Walsh has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

The lecture is made possible by a generous gift of the Mindlin Foundation and is co-sponsored by the Harvey Mudd College departments of Biology and Chemistry and Merck/AAAS.