Events

April 18, 2012

The 19th Annual Granville H. Sewell Distinguished Lecture in Environmental Health Sciences

"Perspective on the Role of Genetic Toxicology in Public Health"

Samuel H. Wilson, MD
Principal Investigator
DNA Repair & Nucleic Acid Enzymology Group
Laboratory of Structural Biology
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health

Dr. Wilson is a leading researcher on DNA repair at the National Institute of Environmental Sciences. He is an expert in genetic susceptibility and functional genomics, a field that he began researching while still in medical school. It was his early curiosity about what could be causing the association between inflammation and cancer that triggered an interest in the connection between the environment and genomic system.

As Dr. Wilson explains, "I saw a great opportunity for making use of DNA information in medical therapeutics and a need for population-based research to understand the significance of genetic background and individual susceptibility."

His Sewell lecture provided an overview of the ways that the environment communicates with the genomic system and how an individual's genetic make-up determines his or her response to toxins. Dr. Wilson explored some of the key issues and risks to consider when attempting to treat a patient for toxic exposures. More broadly, he discussed the coming era of personalized medicine, when treatment will be based on knowledge of the individual patient’s DNA code.

March 28, 2012

Biological Mechanisms at the Crossroads of Aging and Chronic Diseases

Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD

Scientific Director
National Institute on Aging
National Institutes of Health

"When walking past a person we make judgments about their age based on visual cues, such as the luminosity and smoothness of the skin, their muscle tone, the drooping of their eyes, and the way they walk," observes Luigi Ferrucci, Scientific Director of the National Institute on Aging.  "These assessments are not based  on biological age in terms of numbers of years lived, they are based on age in terms of functionality.”

Many factors determine these "phenotypes of aging"--individual genetics, environmental exposures and activities throughout the lifecourse, and the toll of chronic diseases. In his Grand Rounds lecture, Dr. Ferricci reviewed research on these determinants of how well individuals age and look at the keys to more successful aging as a society. Doing a better job of handling aging populations is, he says, "the key to the future of modern society. Behavior that leads to better functionality, he adds, "will buy us better health as adults and in our advanced years."

February 15, 2012

Move the Body & Enrich the Brain:
Maintaining, Rehabilitating and Improving Neurocognitive Health Throughout Life

The areas of our brain that control memory and planning--the hippocampus and frontal lobe--are particularly vulnerable to stress, the environment and aging. Dr. Carlson will discuss how advances in science and public health interventions may reverse damage and fortify at-risk brains.

Michelle Carlson, PhD [BIO]

Associate Professor
Associate Director of the Center on Aging and Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

January 18, 2012

The Public Health Legacy of Lead in the Environment: A Historical, Social and Biological Perspective

Environmental lead is a long-standing focus of research here at the Mailman School and we are very fortunate to be hearing from two world renowned experts on our own faculty: Tomás R. Guilarte, PhD, and David Rosner, PhD. They will discuss how lead-contaminated homes continue to put children at great risk for mental retardation, kidney disease, and other long-term conditions throughout the lifecourse. Their lecture is extremely timely, given the recommendation by a CDC panel earlier this month to broaden the definition of lead poisoning to include lower levels of exposure. 

Using domestic and international examples, Drs. Guilarte and Rosner will illuminate dramatic shifts in the field by exploring these questions: Who is at risk? What, if any, is an acceptable level of exposure? What is the biological impact of lead in the developing brain? What ethical questions are posed by research—in particular, a Johns Hopkins University experiment on lead paint in the 1990s that put children in danger and resulted in a class action lawsuit? How can science-based strategies mitigate the long-term effects of lead exposure? 

Mailman School Faculty Speakers:

Tomas R. Guilarte, PhD [BIO]

Leon Hess Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences

David Rosner, PhD [BIO]

Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and History

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