The annual Summer Symposium in Molecular Biology is entering its twenty-seventh consecutive year this summer.

The Summer Symposium in Molecular Biology is an autonomous faculty program administered by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University. This internationally recognized program follows these symposium objectives:

• Broaden the body of knowledge relating to the symposium theme
• Provide a vehicle for information exchange and technology transfer between Penn State and other academic, research, and industrial communities
• Provide an internationally recognized forum for molecular biology/biotechnology research and education, financially accessible to undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral scholars

Previous speakers include Nobel Laureates David Baltimore, Paul Berg, J. Michael Bishop, Susumu Tonegawa, Aaron Klug, Arthur Kornberg, Gunther Blobel, Phillip Sharp, Thomas Cech, Lee Hartwell, Robert Horvitz, and Richard Axel, as well as other distinguished speakers such as Alexander Rich, Charles Yanofsky, Joseph Gall, Seymour Benzer, Robert Gallo, Luc Montagnier, Jeff Schell, Gregory Petsko, Peter Dervan, Christopher Walsh, David Felton, George Rose, Thomas Shenk, Ron Evans, David Allis, Stuart Orkin, Robert Waterston, and Edward Solomon.

Each year, a program is developed relative to current research directions in the medical and molecular biological sciences. Since 1982 the symposium has addressed a broad range of research topics, including: oncogenes, DNA protein interactions, AIDS, neurobiology, nuclear structure, microbial differentiation, plant/bacteria symbiosis, regulation of gene expression, cell cycle control, growth factors and receptors, transgenic expression, molecular interactions in plant development, cell growth and regulation; structure/function in proteins and enzymes, molecular mechanisms of toxicity, chromosomal controls of gene expression, apoptosis, microbial structural biology, immune-neuro endocrine interactions, protein and RNA folding problems, emerging viral diseases, xenobiotic receptors in toxicology and carcinogenesis, chromatin structure and function, hematopoiesis and immune cell function, comparative and functional genomics, metallobiochemistry, plus chromatin and epigenetic regulation of transcription.

Generous program support traditionally has been provided by various industry affiliates, foundations, and by many academic units at Penn State University. Historically the program has had significant impact on the scientific community in general, and has further enhanced the visibility and quality of intellectual life at Penn State.

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Retinal microglia stained with iba-1.  Picture by Chris Norbury and Erica Granger, Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, The Pennsylvania State University