Institute of Medicine hosts Inaugural Distinguished Science Lecture Sept. 6

The University of Maine Institute of Medicine will host its First Annual Distinguished Science Lecture at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Buchanan Alumni House. 

UMaine alumnus D. Allan Butterfield, associate vice president for research for centers and institutes and for research priority areas at the University of Kentucky, will deliver the lecture and discuss his research into Alzheimer’s disease. 

Butterfield, also the UK Alumni Association Endowed Professor of Biological Chemistry, is a native of Piscataquis County, Maine who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with high distinction from UMaine in 1968. He is credited with discovering that small oligomers of amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta), which accumulate in the Alzheimer’s disease brain, are associated with free radical production that leads to lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation causing death to neurons. His research changed the paradigm for understanding the pathogenesis and progression of Alzheimer’s disease to include oxidative damage as a key factor.

Learn more about the distinguished lecture, which kicks off the institute’s fall 2022 seminar series, online.