Barnett and DeVivo Lectures, 1999.

This year Dr. Alma L. Burlingame, distinguished researcher and Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco delivered the Barnett Lectures. Professor Burlingame knew both Drs. Karger and Paul Vouros at MIT where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1962 under Professor Klaus Biemann. His public lecture titled “Deciphering the Molecular Machinery of Drug Toxicity: The Case of Acetaminophen” explored the molecular bases of drug toxicity in Tylenol (acetaminophen). Dr. Burlingame reviewed what is known about the toxicity of acetaminophen and illustrated how new analytical techniques based in mass spectrometry are able to accelerate understanding of the molecular basis of this phenomenon. Dr. Burlingame has been studying the nature of protein targets that appear to be involved in causing hepatoxicity in order to gain insight into the mechanistic nature of centrilobular liver necrosis.

Professor Burlingame’s technical lecture the following day titled “Probing Cell Machinery with 2-D Gels, Mass Spectrometry and Data Bases,” explored the methods and current problems in biomedical research with mass spectrometry. Dr. Burlingame spent the rest of the afternoon visiting labs and talking with Barnett researchers.

The 11th DeVivo Lecturer was Mr. John T. Preston, President and CEO of Quantum Energy Technologies Corporation and Senior Lecturer at MIT. Dr. Karger knew Mr. Preston’s father, Sean Preston, who was Editor of The Journal of Chromatographic Science. Mr. Preston previously was the Director of Technology Development at MIT, having participated in the founding of approximately 80 technology companies. Mr. Preston received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University. His lecture on “Success Factors in Commercializing Innovative Technologies” addressed topics such as why market leaders fail to pioneer radical new inventions, the importance of management teams, speed to market, and how company location can determine success or failure. Mr. Preston explained that universities play an important role since the origin of many biotechnology and internet companies can be tied to university research and spin-off companies. He also noted an interesting fact that Northeastern has created the most spin-off companies after MIT and Harvard.