Van Andel Research Institute is pleased to host Nobel Laureate Michael S. Brown, M.D., who in October will give the special scientific seminar A Century of Cholesterol and Coronaries.
Dr. Brown was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1985, along with his colleague, Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, for discovery of the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, which controls the level of cholesterol in the blood. They also showed that mutations in this receptor cause familial hypercholesterolemia, a condition marked by premature heart attacks.
Notably, Brown and Goldstein's work laid the foundation for the development of statins, a group of drugs that are taken daily by more than twenty million people across the world to lower cholesterol and help prevent heart attacks. Brown earned his M.D. in 1966 from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and is chairman of Van Andel Institute's Board of Scientific Advisors.
Brown will speak at 3 p.m., Monday, October 27, in Van Andel Institute's Tomatis Auditorium. The seminar is free and open to the public. Please contact Beth Resau at [email protected] or 616.234.5373 with any questions.
About Van Andel Research Institute
Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996, Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent research and educational organization based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), VAI's research arm, is dedicated to studying the genetic, cellular and molecular origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and working to translate those findings into effective therapies. Find out more about Van Andel Institute or donate by visiting www.vai.org.