Dr. Uri Galili discovered the anti-Gal antibody in 1984. In the 38 years that followed, he, along with collaborators across the landscape of modern life science, have elucidated the astonishing evolutionary, immunological, physiological, and clinical range of anti Gal’s implications in more than 100 publications.

In this lecture, Dr. Galili will talk about how, among mammals, only catarrhine primates (Old World monkeys and apes, including humans) make anti-Gal antibodies, as a consequence of losing the enzyme for synthesis of alpha-gal, the carbohydrate that anti-Gal antibodies recognize. Galili hypothesizes that loss of that enzyme and the consequent synthesis of abundant anti-Gal antibody saved a tiny remnant of our primate ancestors from extinction from a catastrophic outbreak of viral disease 20 to 30 million years ago.

This lecture is sponsored by the Donald M. Nelson Lectureship Endowment.