LONDON, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite renewed threats of an academic boycott of Israeli academics, more than 200 scientists from leading UK and European universities will gather in London next week at a two-day symposium with a group of top scientists from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science. The symposium is hosted by UCL with speakers and participants coming from Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Edinburgh and other leading UK academic institutions.

This two day meeting deals with the cutting-edge work of Biological Complexity. Its sessions include How to Read the Genome - "we have the book," says Weizmann's Dr Eran Segal, "the problem is - we don't know how to read it." Another session led by Prof Ehud Shapiro - noted in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's smallest molecular computer - will discuss "How to edit DNA". The closing keynote address looking towards science in 2020 will be given by the director of Microsoft's European Research Programme, Dr Stephen Emmott.

There has been unprecedented demand for places at the seminar from countries all over Europe. Eight key members of the Weizmann's research establishment together with 8 specially selected graduate students are flying in for the occasion.

Editor's Notes

Weizmann UK, (formerly known as the Weizmann Institute Foundation) was established in the UK in 1950 is part of a global network of 17 countries, which stimulate support for and awareness of the Weizmann Institute, its research programmes, scientists and development projects.

The Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.

Contact:

- Ms Sheridan Gould, Executive Director, Weizmann UK,

- t: +44(0)20-7424-6860, e:sheridan@weizmann.org.uk

Contact: Ms Sheridan Gould, Executive Director, Weizmann UK, t: +44(0)20-7424-6860, e:sheridan@weizmann.org.uk