The next Bisan Lecture webinar will take place on January 10th at 7pm Palestine time (6pm Central European Time, 12 noon US Eastern time). We will have the pleasure to welcome Prof. John Hardy (University College London) who will speak (in English with simultaneous Arabic translation for those who wish) on Alzheimer’s disease: from genetic analysis towards (limited) successful treatment.
Dear Colleagues,
In his Bisan lecture last week, Prof. Etienne Balibar expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine and discussed the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine as a new pattern of murderous conflicts with global implications. Balibar highlighted the massacres committed by various parties involved in both cases. He criticized the use of the term ‘terrorism’, pointing out the delegitimization tactics employed by states in conflicts. Regarding the term ‘genocide’, Balibar went through the tragic history of the two conflicts he compared, and mentioned the fact that in both cases traumas are instrumentalized, and suggested that extermination with genocidal dimension seems to be more relevant to the catastrophe in Gaza. Balibar explored the concepts of right and justice in the context of each war, arguing that a just war involves a combat in which a community with a collective sense of identity historically attached to a territory expresses and defines its right of self-preservation that is denied from it by a dominant power. This applies to both Ukraine and Palestine. Wondering whether there would be a rapid de-legitimization of Israel and increased recognition of Palestinian rights, he offered an ambivalent answer: whereas there is a growing global recognition of the Palestinian plea there are difficulties in creating a Palestinian collective political subject. Balibar concluded by discussing the global dimensions of both wars within an imperial context, emphasizing the need for a new cosmopolitical understanding that would orientate our solidarities with people fighting for their liberty. You can watch the video recording here. The lecture notes are available here.
We are pleased to announce that the next Bisan Lecture webinar will take place on January 10th at 7pm Palestine time (6pm Central European Time, 12 noon US Eastern time). We will have the pleasure to welcome Prof. John Hardy (University College London) who will speak (in English with simultaneous Arabic translation for those who wish) on
Title: Alzheimer’s disease: from genetic analysis towards (limited) successful treatment
You can register for the webinar by clicking here!
Abstract: The pathology of Alzheimer’s disease is plaques made of the amyloid peptide, intraneuronal tangles made of the tau protein together with massive neuronal loos which underlies the dementia. Genetic analysis in early onset hereditary disease identified, first mutations in the amyloid (APP) gene and then mutations in the presenilin (PSEN) genes which liberate the amyloid peptide from its precursor protein (APP). These genetic findings led to the conceptualisation of the amyloid hypothesis for the disease which postulated that if you could prevent amyloid deposition, it would be a treatment for the disease. After many failed amyloid trials, we now have had 3 successful trials of anti amyloid therapies in the disease. In my talk I will discuss the reasons for the previous failures and discuss the successful trials and their limitations. I will discuss the role of microglia in disease pathogenesis and also how we might improve therapies by making earlier diagnoses.
Biographical Sketch of Prof. John Hardy
Following his PhD, Hardy did postdoctoral research at the MRC Neuropathogenesis Unit in Newcastle upon Tyne, England and then further postdoctoral work at the Swedish Brain Bank in Umeå, Sweden where he started to work on Alzheimer’s disease. He became Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at St. Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College London in 1985 and initiated genetic studies of Alzheimer’s disease there, before moving to the USA in 1989 then taking the Pfeiffer Endowed Chair of Alzheimer’s Research at the University of South Florida, in Tampa in 1992.
In 1996 he moved to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, as Consultant and Professor of Neuroscience. He became Chair of Neuroscience in 2000 and moved to National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, as Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics in 2001. In 2007 he took up the Chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, University College London. November 2015, he was awarded the Breakthrough Prize and in 2018 jointly the Brain Prize from The Lundbeck Foundation in Denmark. He has been awarded multiple Honorary Doctorates from around the world in recognition of his work and collaborations, which recently include in 2020 an Honorary Doctorate, from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
You can register for the webinar by clicking here!
This lecture is sponsored by the Bisan Center for Research and Development and Scientists for Palestine.
In light of the urgent need to assist the people of Gaza, who are currently experiencing immeasurable loss of life and widespread devastation, please read this humanitarian aid appeal from ANERA, forwarded to us by a friend of BLS, Dr. Sara Roy of Harvard University.
Hoping to see many of you at this webinar, we send you our best regards.
The Bisan Lecture Series Steering Committee
Next BLS webinar
Wednesday February 14, 2024, 7 pm Palestine time
Annemarie Jacir (Filmmaker)
Wednesday March 13, 2024, 7 pm Palestine time
Achille Mbembe (University of the Witwatersrand)
Wednesday April 10, 2024, 7 pm Palestine time
Prof. David Mumford (Brown and Harvard University)
Title: Are fully intelligent robots coming soon?
Wednesday May 8, 2024, 7 pm Palestine time
Prof. Khaled Fahmy (Tufts University)
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BLS Statement of purpose
In concert with Scientists for Palestine and the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and in keeping with their joint commitment to full integration of Palestine in the global community of learning, the Bisan Lecture Series sponsors discourses on subjects of cultural, scientific, and societal importance by leading research experts and public intellectuals of varied heritage and viewpoint. The interactive webinars are free and open to the public, and recordings of each will be posted soon afterward.