Two renowned scientists delivered lectures on epigenetic effects in plants and discovery of anemias therapies respectively as part of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) Distinguished Lecture Series.

They were Professor Sir David Baulcombe, Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge; and Professor Harvey F. Lodish, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US.

In his talk titled “Non coding RNA, epigenetics and non Mendelian inheritance in plants” on 10 November, Professor Baulcombe said the secondary effects of the epigenetic marks in plants may influence the expression of adjacent genes.

The Regius Professor of Botany at Cambridge said the effect of RNA silencing of the epigenetic marks was particularly important as it may influence hybrid vigour and transgressive segregation.

On 13 November, Professor Lodish delivered a lecture titled “Self-renewal of human hematopoietic progenitor cells: Development of novel therapies for anemias”.

He suggested that the clinically tested peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARa) agonists may improve the efficacy of corticosteroids in treating erythropoietin resistant anemias.

Professor Lodish is a Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology and Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.