The Cornell University-Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Partnership will host its first Cancer Biology Lecture in Room G-01 of the university's Biotechnology Building on Dec. 1 at 12:20 p.m. Antony Burgess, M.D., co-discoverer of a powerful cellular stimulant, will discuss "Signaling Therapeutics: Designing Drugs to Treat Cancer."

Burgess is director of the Melbourne, Australia, branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and a professor of cell biology in the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne. He currently is president of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His lecture will explore the development of new therapeutic agents for combating cancer.

Burgess won the 1996 Amgen award and last year received the inaugural Medical Oncology Group/AMRAD Cancer Achievement Award. He is recognized as one of the discoverers of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF), a protein that can be used as a drug by some immunosuppressed (or HIV) patients.

Cornell and the Ludwig Institute forged a partnership in 1999 to initiate a number of research and educational activities, including the establishment of the Cornell-Ludwig Bioprocess Research Laboratory. In the planning stage is the Cornell-Ludwig Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) BioProduction Facility.

The partnership initiated the cancer biology lectures to bring distinguished researchers in the field of cancer biology to the Ithaca campus. The seminar series is being presented in conjunction with the Cornell Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors program in New York state, the Cornell Comparative Cancer Program and the Cornell Graduate Training Program in Molecular and Cell Biology of Cancer.