Guest Biochemist to Discuss Vitamin D's Therapeutic Value April 18

“Vitamin D: A Therapeutic Gold Mine?” is the topic for 2007 R. Gaurth Hansen Seminar Series speaker Hector DeLuca’s April 18 talk at Utah State University. DeLuca, Harry Steenbock Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, speaks at 4 p.m. in Eccles Science Learning Center room 046. His lecture, hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is free and open to all.

“Professor DeLuca is recognized as the world’s leading expert on vitamin D structure and function,” says USU chemistry professor Scott Ensign, seminar host. “His research has profoundly impacted the well-being of countless patients suffering from vitamin D disorders and osteoporosis.”

 

DeLuca discovered the active hormonal form of vitamin D that the body uses, Ensign says, as well as the intermediate metabolites involved in synthesis of the active hormone. These discoveries led to the development of drugs that have essentially cured rickets, a disease that causes bones to be weak and malformed. DeLuca’s collaborations with the medical world are fueling efforts to prevent and arrest such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, along with work toward the development of anti-transplant rejection drugs.

 

A fellow in the American Institute of Nutrition, DeLuca is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including election into the National Academy of Sciences. He holds more than 600 patents for his therapeutic drugs, which have yielded a net worth of $8 billion in pharmaceutical sales.

 

DeLuca is the fifth annual Hansen Seminar speaker. The seminar series honors the late R. Gaurth Hansen, a USU alum who joined the university’s faculty in 1968. A nationally respected biochemist, Hansen served for 16 years as an academic vice president and as Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences and Chemistry/Biochemistry at Utah State. He was named USU Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1985.

 

“When I invited Professor DeLuca to speak, he noted that he knew Dr. Hansen,” Ensign says. “He said he considers it a personal honor to speak at a symposium dedicated to this prominent scientist who oversaw great advances during his tenure at USU.”

 

The Hansen seminar series is made possible by an endowment initiated by William Rutter, co-founder and former chairman of the board of the Chiron Corporation.

 

For more information about the seminar, contact the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at 435-797-1619.

 

 

Contact: Scott Ensign [ensigns@cc.usu.edu]; 435-797-3969