Media Advisory: Retrovirus Evolution

Leading microbiologist and HIV/AIDS researcher to deliver public lecture at McGill

McGill University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the McGill AIDS Centre and the Beatty Memorial Lecture Committee are pleased to announce that Dr. John M. Coffin, American Cancer Society Research Professor and Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, will deliver a public lecture titled Retrovirus Evolution.

Dr. Coffin is one of the world’s leading figures in the field of retrovirology. He revolutionized the study of retroviruses like HIV by uncovering a critical part of the mechanism that enables them to control their host cells. In addition to his position at Tufts, he is an American Cancer Society Research Professor and past Director of the HIV Drug Resistance Program at the National Cancer Institute. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, USA, in 1999, Dr. Coffin has also been an editor or editor-in-chief of many leading journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Virology. He has written nearly 200 research articles and has written and edited some of the best-known virology textbooks.

What: Free public lecture: Retrovirus Evolution

Who: Dr. John M. Coffin, American Cancer Society Research Professor, Distinguished Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine

When: January 25, 2008, 2 p.m.

Where: Lyman Duff Amphitheatre, McGill University, 3775 University Street, Montreal.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the McGill AIDS Centre with support from the Beatty Memorial Lectures Fund and the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital. The Beatty Memorial Lectures were established in 1952 to bring outstanding international scholars to McGill and to Montreal, both to give public lectures and to interact with faculty and students.

On the Web: www.mcgill.ca/microimm/