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Lucy Shapiro Lecture I: Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health Lecture II: The Systems Architecture of a Bacterial Cell Cycle Lucy Shapiro is renowned for her contributions to the fields of developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics. Her research focuses on the cell cycle of a developing microorganism, particularly on the process by which the cells divide into dissimilar, rather than identical, “daughter” cells. This process remains, in Shapiro’s words, “one of the most fundamental questions of developmental biology.” Shapiro's pioneering work has revealed the genetic circuitry controlling a bacterial cell with 3,767 genes, providing the basic principles of genetic programming that helps cells move seamlessly through the cell cycle. Shapiro also focuses on advancing the field of antibiotics, which she argues has reached a critical moment in history. Based on her in depth analysis of a simple bacterial cell, Shapiro identified new antibiotic targets and cofounded a biotech company that designs antimicrobial drugs. Lecture description: In her first lecture, Professor Shapiro discusses how antibiotics, widely used since the 1950's, are becoming ineffective because bacteria have many ways of acquiring drug resistance. Development of new antibiotics cannot keep pace in this biological arms race. Confounding this problem, there is an increase in prevalent infectious diseases around the world due to overpopulation, globalization, and urbanization. We are rapidly reaching a critical stage in this global threat that has both economic and political implications. Her second lecture examines the functions required to reproduce and maintain life in the simple bacterial cell by using a systems engineering approach that defines the control circuitry integrated in time and space.
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