Molecular biologist Jack Szostak (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate in 2009) gave the lecture “Information at the Dawn of Life” on 3 June in the Darwin Hall at the University of Valencia. This lecture is part of the activities organised by I2SysBio (CSIC-UV) to mark its tenth anniversary. The Faculty of Biological Sciences and the University of Valencia’s Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation also took part in organising the event.

In addition, I2SysBio had the honour of welcoming Szostak prior to his lecture. The molecular biologist had previously visited the centre in 2016, so he was able to see the advances made in the institute’s facilities over the past decade. Szostak also attended a working breakfast with the coordinators of I2SysBio’s three research programmes, during which they presented the scientific activities they are carrying out and the centre’s strategic vision.

Szostak is one of the most influential voices in scientific thinking on the origin of life. In this regard, he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase, a key finding that has expanded our understanding of cellular ageing.

He is currently a professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago. He has also served as a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and as a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. In addition, he has conducted research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and has been named the Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston).

You can watch the full lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJSVzKbFo-o