The College of Arts and Sciences invites you to the Spring 2015 Dean's Lecture Grandma Eloise's Toy Box and the Discovery of Four Novel Blood Types, which will be given by Associate Professor of Biology Bryan Ballif.

You may know your ABO blood type.  You may even know if you are Rhesus (Rh) positive or negative.  However, do you know if you are positive or negative for the more than thirty additional blood types?  These blood types can inflict life-threatening complications for transfusion patients or for fetuses during pregnancy.  Detecting these rare blood types can be very challenging, particularly because the causes of several have remained mysterious for decades.  Professor Ballif will describe his primary role in an international collaboration that has solved some of these riddles by providing the molecular bases for four rare blood group systems. 

Date: Tuesday, March 10
Time: 5:00 pm
Location: Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building
Information: 656-0756

Bryan Ballif is a cellular biochemist, developmental biologist, and protein mass spectrometrist. After earning degrees in Microbiology and Biochemistry, he received a Ph.D in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard.  Following postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and at Harvard, he joined UVM's Department of Biology in 2006, where he teaches and continues his studies of cellular signaling in cell migration and proliferation.  Professor Ballif's research spans multiple biological disciplines as he collaborates with many researchers, local to international.  His research is featured in 64 journal articles. 

The Dean's Lecture Series was established in 1991 as a way to recognize and honor colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences who have consistently demonstrated the ability to translate their professional knowledge and skill into exciting classroom experiences for their students - faculty who meet the challenge of being both excellent teachers and highly respected professionals in their own discipline. The Award is a celebration of the unusually high quality of our faculty and has become an important and treasured event each semester.

The lecture will also be videotaped and available on the UVM website.