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New Drugs for Old Diseases

Whitehead Institute's 2005-2006 Lecture Series for High School Teachers

Program Calendar

[2005 seminars]

It’s no secret that drug development has become extraordinarily complex. By common estimates, a typical new drug takes 15 years and something like $1 billion to come to market. That’s because finding a drug candidate and developing it into a successful treatment for disease depends too much on raw effort—and luck.

As drug companies heighten their search for drug candidates to fill their pipelines, research has turned toward deeper understanding of disease-causing mechanisms and pathways that may yield better answers to how disease works and how it might be treated.

Join us this year for Whitehead Institute’s Lecture Series for High School Teachers, “New Drugs for Old Diseases.” The series will feature talks by world-class researchers who are investigating ways to revolutionize drug discovery.

The first seminar of this year’s program will be held on Tuesday, October 11, at Whitehead’s McGovern Auditorium. Details about the specific seminars can be found on the seminar listings page. Each session will consist of a lecture and a working dinner and begin at 4:00 pm. Dinners end around 7:00 pm.

Also as in previous years, we will match teachers with Whitehead partners—young Whitehead scientists who will serve as a resource for you during the school year. The partners are eager to answer your questions, discuss their fields of expertise, and even visit your school to meet your students. Teachers who have taken advantage of their partnership in past years have found it to be an invaluable relationship.

The partnership works best when the teachers and partners have similar expectations about the partnership. So that we can match you with a partner who can meet your specific needs, please complete the brief questionnaire on the registration form. Please complete and return the registration form to Amy DiGangi, Whitehead Institute, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 or fax to 617-258-8848. For more information on the teacher program, please contact Amy DiGangi at digangi@wi.mit.edu or by calling 617-258-7270.

Participating teachers may be eligible to earn up to 27 Professional Development Points toward recertification.

For information on other biology resources, please see the Resources for Scientists.

[2005 seminars]
[registration form]
[program FAQ]

Past Programs
2008-2009: Pursuing the Promise: Advances in Stem Cell Science
2007-2008: Controlling Genes
2006-2007: The Awesome Power of Genetics
2005-2006: New Drugs for Old Diseases
2003-2004: Life in Process: Evolution, Diversity and Change
2002-2003: Biological Challenges to Humanity: Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
2001-2002: Neuroscience Today: Getting Behind the Mind’s Eye
2000-2001: Beyond the Scientific Frontier
1999-2000: Genomics, Genetics, and Evolution
1998-1999: Bioengineering
1997-1998: Molecular Medicine
1996-1997: Biotechnology
1995-1996: Evolution
1994-1995: Genetic Models for the High School Classroom
1992-1993: Molecular Approaches to Human Disease
1991-1992: Molecules of Life: Exploring Science at the Whitehead Institute

Last updated August 29, 2005.

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