Prof. Brian Kobilka Doctor Honoris Causa of the SUT

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I cordially invite you to the press conference on the occasion of the ceremony of awarding the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to prof. Brian Kobilka, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The ceremony will take place on the Professor's birthday. The professor and his wife Tong Sun will visit the Silesian University of Technology for a six-day visit, from May 27^th  to June 1^st. - For the first time, the Silesian University of Technology welcomes a Nobel Prize winner, the most valued award in the world, to its community. It is Professor Brian Kobilka - a scientist whose achievement enabled a breakthrough in modern medicine and pharmacology - says prof. Marek Pawełczyk, Vice-Rector for Science and Development.

Prof. Brian Kobilka is an American physician and molecular biologist. His research into the structure and function of cell surface molecules known as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) - the largest family of signal-receiving molecules found in organisms - has contributed to significant advances in cell biology and medicine. For his discoveries, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012 together with the American physician and molecular biologist Prof. Robert J. Lefkowitz. It is estimated that the discovery of prof. Kobilka is used in about 40% of currently produced drugs.

A PRESS CONFERENCE

May 30 (Tuesday) 9:30-10.30

Place: Education and Congress Centre of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, 18B, S. Konarskiego Street.

Parking: at the Centre for New Technologies, 22B, Konarskiego Street.

Participants:

• The Rector of the Silesian University of Technology, prof. dr hab. Eng. Arkadiusz Mężyk
• Professor Brian Kobilka, Doctor Honoris Causa of the Silesian University of Technology
• Mayor of Gliwice, Adam Neumann
• Kazimierz Karolczak, Chairman of the Board of the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis
• Prof. dr hab. Eng Marek Pawełczyk, Vice-Rector for Science and Development

The programme:

1. Presentations by participants
2. Questions from the Media
3. Individual recordings and interviews

At 11.00 am we invite you to participate in the ceremony of conferring the title of Doctor Honoris Causa.

Media pack: https://cloud.polsl.pl/index.php/s/7R3E4SRMYa63JBn

The partner of the event is the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis.

Professor Brian Kobilka joins the group of outstanding professors and creators from universities and research units who were awarded the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Silesian University of Technology. In the past, it was awarded to Bertrand Piccard from the Solar Impulse Foundation, Yuri Bobalo from the Lviv University of Technology and Metin Akay from the University of Houston.

Professor Brian K. Kobilka - Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

He was born on May 30, 1955, in Little Falls, Minnesota, USA. He is an American physician and molecular biologist. His research into the structure and function of cell surface molecules known as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) - the largest family of signal-receiving molecules found in organisms - has contributed to significant advances in cell biology and medicine. For his discoveries, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012 together with the American physician and molecular biologist Prof. Robert J. Lefkowitz.

Prof. Kobilka graduated in biology and chemistry from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1977 and in medicine from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1988. Three years later, after completing an internal medicine residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University Medical Centre in St. Louis, Missouri, Kobilka joined Lefkowitz's lab at Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina. There, while working as a postdoc, he reconstructed the complete DNA sequence for the mammalian beta ₂ -adrenergic receptor from genomic DNA fragments that had been amplified in genetically modified bacteria. This discovery overcomes the difficulty of sequencing the receptor due to its limited natural production in cells. Achievement of Prof. Kobilka was the basis for Lefkowitz's team's breakthrough discovery on the structure of GPCRs. Scientists have shown that these receptors have seven membrane-spanning domains, each of which plays a specific role in receptor activity.

Prof. Kobilka is the recipient of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology in 1994. His work on the structure of the GPCR was awarded a second "Breakthrough of the Year" award in 2007 by the science magazine Science. In 2011, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. In 2017, he received the American Academy of Achievements Golden Plate Award.

Sources Used:

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brian-Kobilka

- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2012/kobilka/biographical/

Contact for media.

Jadwiga Witek, Press Spokesperson of the Silesian University of Technology
Tel. 725991946; email: jadwiga.witek@polsl.pl