[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/gauldie-cropped.jpg” caption=”Jack Gauldie”]The timeline from when the word 'gene' was first coined and the entire human genome was sequenced is less than 100 years.

Jack Gauldie describes this genomic timeline as a “short and frantic ride in science”.

Gauldie, professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and head of McMaster's Institute for Molecular Medicine and Health (IMMH), will take his audience on a whirlwind tour of gene research in his Science in the City lecture, Genes as medicine: from growth factors to vaccines .

Gauldie, a leader in gene therapeutics, will be at the forefront of the research that will see gene therapy as a cure for diseases from asthma to cancer, for treatment of growth deficiencies and also for use as a vaccine for infectious diseases such as SARS.

In an interview with the Hamilton Spectator Gauldie explains that, “things go wrong when genes don't work right or they're working too hard or there's too many or too few or they're in the wrong sequence. This is a new way of treating disease at that level.”

Gauldie is also involved in the frantic race to discover a vaccine for SARS. His McMaster team is part of a collaboration that developed two vaccines currently being tested on animals at a facility in Alabama — the first test results are expected in June. Gauldie will also discuss this aspect of his research at tonight's (May 11) lecture.

Gauldie's Science in the City lecture is free and open to the public. It will be held in The Spectator auditorium, 44 Frid St. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the talk begins at 7 p.m.

To register for a seat, call 905-525-9140, ext. 24934, or send an e-mail to sciencecity@mcmaster.ca.