Guest Speaker: Richard S. Lewis, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Speaker Bio: Dr. Richard Lewis was a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University, where he is also a member of Bio-X and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of calcium signaling through store-operated Ca²⁺ channels (SOCs), particularly the CRAC channel, which is crucial for T cell function and immune responses.
Talk Title: "Molecules in motion: the cellular and molecular dynamics of store-operated calcium channels"
Abstract: Dr. Lewis graduated from Yale University in 1978 with a B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and earned his Ph.D. in Neurobiology at Caltech in the lab of Dr. James Hudspeth, where his work on the ionic basis of frequency tuning in hair cells sparked a lifelong interest in the mechanisms and functions of ion channels. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Michael Cahalan at UC Irvine, he discovered new varieties of K+, Cl-, and Ca2+ channels in T lymphocytes, including the Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channel. In 1990 he joined the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford and served as Department Chair from 2004 to 2009, becoming Emeritus in 2026. His lab at Stanford has made important advances in understanding the biophysical properties of CRAC channels, the molecular and cellular mechanisms governing their activation, and their functions in controlling gene expression, lymphocyte motility and immune synapse organization and dynamics. In recognition of these achievements, Dr. Lewis was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2020) and received the Cole Award from the Biophysical Society (2021).
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