UK Biology Celebrates Thomas Hunt Morgan's Birthday With Panel Discussion

LEXINGTON, Ky (Oct. 18, 2016) — This Wednesday, Oct. 19, the University of Kentucky Department of Biology will celebrate Thomas Hunt Morgan's 150th birthday with a panel discussion titled "Frontiers in Genetics & Genomics."

The panel will explore the famous biologist's (and UK alumnus') pioneering work in genetics, his Nobel Prize, and what he might be working on if he were alive today (such as assembling genomes, gene editing and gene drives, gene therapy in medicine, bioethics and big unanswered questions).

The celebration will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., in the Farish Theater in the Lexington Public Library on the corner of Main and Limestone. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

Born in Lexington in 1866, Morgan received his bachelor's degree (1886) and master's degree (1888) from the State College of Kentucky (now the University of Kentucky). He then received a doctoral degree in biology from the Johns Hopkins University. Originally interested in development, regeneration and embryology, Morgan is most famous for his discovery of sex-linked inheritance and the identity of the chromosome as the location for our genes. He and his students at Columbia University and then the California Institute of Technology went on to discover many details of inheritance, establishing the fruit fly as the premier model organism for the study of modern genetics. He received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for this line of research in 1933. 

For more information, visit https://bio.as.uky.edu/month-th-morgan or follow @THMorgan1886 on Twitter.

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MEDIA CONTACT: Jenny Wells, 859-257-5343; jenny.wells@uky.edu