The Herter Lecture Series in NYU Langone’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology is named for Christian Archibald Herter, MD. Born in Glenville, Connecticut, in 1865, Dr. Herter received an MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and studied pathology under William H. Welch, MD, at Johns Hopkins University and Auguste-Henri Forel, MD, in Zurich.

Dr. Herter’s experience practicing neurology in New York City was captured in The Diagnosis of Diseases of the Nervous System, a manual he wrote for students and practitioners in 1892. His interest in laboratory medicine led him to abandon his medical practice and build a laboratory on the fourth floor of his home. In 1897, he was appointed professor of pathological chemistry at The University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College.

In 1903, Dr. Herter established this lectureship as a memorial to his second son Albert, who died the previous year at the age of 2. He also established a similar lectureship at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he returned to work the same year.

In 2018, we hosted our 100th Herter lecture.

Previous Herter Lectures

2024

“The Causes and Consequences of Replication Stress”
Karlene Cimprich, PhD
Professor, Stanford University

2018

“Cellular responses to DNA damage: from mechanistic insights to applications in cancer therapy”
Stephen P. Jackson, PhD
Professor and Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories, Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge

2016

“DNA Replication Stress, Chromosome Instability and Cancer”
Ian D. Hickson, PhD, FMedSci, FRS
Professor of Molecular Aging, Director of the Center for Chromosome Stability, University of Copenhagen

2014

“The genetic basis of protection against genotoxic metabolites in mammals"
Dr. Ketan J. Patel, MD, PhD, FMedSci
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Cambridge, UK

2012

“The transcription and roles of non-coding RNAs”
Phillip A. Sharp, PhD
Institute Professor
The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology