Gerald R. Fink, director, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass., will be the Spring 1999 Messenger Lecturer at Cornell University, presenting three talks under the general title "We're Off to See the Genome."

Fink is also the American Cancer Society Professor of Genetics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has a long association with Cornell, joining the faculty in 1967 as an assistant professor of genetics, serving as a professor of genetics from 1976 to 1979 and as professor of biochemistry from 1979 to 1982. His current interest is in the field of infectious disease research.

Fink will present three lectures, all of them free and open to the public:

March 15, "Genetics and the Future," 4:30 p.m., Uris Hall Auditorium; March 16, "What's in a Genome?" 4:30 p.m., Uris Hall Auditorium; and March 17, "Genomes and Disease," noon, 101 Phillips Hall.

Fink is a leader in the understanding of the forces that mold the genome. His laboratory was the first to demonstrate the heritable transformation of yeast by naked DNA and to show that segments of DNA called retrotransposons could move around the genome via an RNA intermediate. His work on baker's yeast has established this organism as a model for fungal infection.

Fungi have emerged as increasingly frequent agents of life-threatening infections. However, there are no effective fungal antibiotics. Fink is exploiting the field of genomics to identify potential targets for new anti-fungal compounds.

The Messenger Lectures were established in 1924 by a gift from Hiram Messenger, who graduated from Cornell in 1880.