The Lasker Lecture Series

The Lasker Lectures explore fundamental scientific questions and elucidate topics of pressing interest in medical research and clinical practice. Through its lecture series, the Lasker Foundation hopes to advance a public dialogue about the ways in which scientific questions are pursued, to boost public understanding of the importance of biomedical research, and to generate excitement about the challenges and promise of biomedical science.

The 2010 Lasker Lecture, "The Origin of Cellular Life and the Emergence of Darwinian Evolution," was delivered by Jack Szostak, on March 16, 2010 at the Scripps Research Institute's Florida campus. Dr. Szostak outlined efforts to reconstruct the pre-evolutionary formation of living systems from basic chemical building blocks. Following Dr. Szostak, Brian Paegel gave a talk entitled "Landscapes for Darwinian Evolution," in which he discussed his research in microfluidic systems.



Following the lecture, Jack Szostak and Brian Paegel sat down with Robert Bazell, NBC News' Chief Science and Health Correspondent, for a panel discussion, along with questions and answers from the audience, about the challenges and rewards of a life in science.