“The research that led to the discovery of recombinant DNA spanned about 20 to 30 years of study of DNA and enzymes that react with it, and no other idea of any purpose except understanding, except exploration, except the reward of discovery.

The invention of recombinant DNA set off the biotech revolution, founded that industry, and marked the beginning of partnerships between schools of medicine and biological scientists with industry, said Kornberg, the Mrs. Yet the constant call for immediate medical applications risks drowning out funding pleas from those pursuing the fundamental science crucial to generating medical applications, the Nobelists argue. “The pace of this innovation - at Stanford Medicine and elsewhere - is only accelerating.” “The innovations we discuss at this symposium stand to transform human health as we know it, enabling us to better predict, prevent and cure diseases once thought to be incurable,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine. This year’s event featured more than 40 high-ranking academic, corporate, foundation and government executives speaking - in some cases via Zoom - before some 400 in-person attendees and a registered livestream audience of more than 6,000. The result, the first recombinant DNA molecule, sparked the field of genetic engineering, which has led to myriad life-saving drugs.įrom its inception in 2016, when it drew 250 attendees, the Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium has grown immensely in both reach and roster. Berg was awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry for combining DNA from two different organisms. The discussion took place during the seventh annual Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium, held April 24 and 25 at Berg Hall on the Stanford School of Medicine campus.īerg Hall is named for the late Paul Berg, PhD, a professor of biochemistry whose groundbreaking research helped forge a path for collaborations between academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. The discussion, moderated by Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, comprised four Nobel laureates in chemistry, three from Stanford Medicine and one from the University of California, Berkeley.

“The most important contribution that we in the university can make to the success of the biopharmaceutic industry is through work that is done quite independently of them, and without any of their needs in mind,” said Roger Kornberg, PhD, Stanford Medicine professor of structural biology, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2006. Curiosity-driven discoveries in often obscure areas of basic biological science pave the way to unexpected applications in medicine, according to a panel of Nobelists.

Novel revolution 2020