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Department of Pathology Heersink School of Medicine

Jay John Listinsky Endowed Lecture in Glycobiology

Dr. Jay John Listinsky, an adjunct associate professor of pathology at UAB at the time of his untimely death in 2012, originally trained as a diagnostic radiologist but had a decades-long interest in fucosylated molecules and their overlapping physiologic properties. He collaborated with investigators in the Division of Anatomic Pathology for many years, which generated several novel manuscripts that added important data to the knowledge base of glycobiology. To further this work, his friends, colleagues, and family, spearheaded by his wife and UAB pathologist, Cathy, endowed this lectureship for future generations.

Past lecturers for the John Jay Listinsky Endowed Lectureship in Glycobiology:

  • 2023

    Ronald L. Schnaar, PhD
    John Jacob Abel Professor and Interim Director
    Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences  
    Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
    “Glycan Recognition in Human Immune Regulation- a Special Role for Sialic Acid”

  • 2021
    Ajit Varki, M.D.
    Distinguished Professor of Cellular & Molecular Medicine
    Co-Director, Glycobiology Research and Training Center
    Co-Director, Center for Academy Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA)
    University of California, San Diego
    "Glycans: The 'Dark Matter' of the Biological Universe"
  • 2019
    Israel Vlodavsky, Ph.D.
    Professor, Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC) 
    Head Tumor Biology Lab
    "Heparanase: from basic research to novel therapeutics for cancer and inflammation"
  • 2018
    Richard D. Cummings, Ph.D.
    Professor of Surgery
    Harvard Medical School
    Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
    Director, HMS Center for Glycoscience
    Director, National Center for Functional Glycomics
    "Integration of Glycomics, Immunology, and Infectious Disease"
  • 2017
    John B. Lowe, M.D.
    Senior Director, Pathology
    Genentech, Inc., San Francisco, CA
    “Fucosylation-dependent control of immunity”
  • 2016
    Robert S. Haltiwanger, Ph.D.
    GRA Eminent Scholar in Biomedical Glycosciences 
    Editor-in-Chief, Glycobiology 
    Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
    Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia 
    "The Secret Lives of Fucose"
  • 2015
    Gerald Hart, Ph.D.
    Professor and GRA Eminent Scholar
    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
    College of Arts and Sciences
    University of Georgia
    “Nutrient Regulation of Signaling & Transcription by O-GlcNAcylation: Roles in Diabetes Complications”
  • 2014
    Linda Hsieh-Wilson, Ph.D.
    Professor of Chemistry
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
    California Institute of Technology     
    "Carbohydrate Signaling in Neurobiology and Cancer"