Vol.25, No. 11	Jan. 21, 2000

Wayne Hendrickson to Give University Lecture on HIV Infection

Wayne Hendrickson, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons, will deliver a University Lecture at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 7 in Low Rotunda.

The title of the lecture is "Molecular Understanding of HIV Infection and its Controls."

In this lecture, Hendrickson describes work on the structural basis for cellular invasion by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His emphasis is on the first steps in cell entry, but other features of HIV structural biology will also be discussed.

Research in Hendrickson's laboratory focuses on the structure and function of biological molecules. He and his colleagues use x-ray crystallography to study molecular properties in atomic detail. By analyzing x-ray beams diffracted from crystals, they are able to reconstruct images of crystallized molecules. Their advances in diffraction methods have been instrumental in the emergence of structural biology as a major force in modern biology and molecular medicine.

Hendrickson has published more than 200 research articles and related reviews. He received a BA from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls (1963) and a PhD in biophysics from Johns Hopkins (1968).