Genome Experts to Discuss Research Implications at Future of Public Health Symposium on Thursday
The timing could not be better. Less than one month after scientists working independently of each other published the most complete description of the human genome in Science and Nature, three genome experts will visit HSPH to discuss "Genomics: A Population Perspective" on Thursday, March 15 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Snyder Auditorium.
The
head of one of the scientific groups, J. Craig Venter, president and chief
scientific officer of Celera Genomics, is a panelist. Joining him are
Gerald Keusch, director of the Fogarty International Center at the National
Institutes of Health, which advances global health through international
scientific cooperation, and Richard Lewontin, Alexander Agassiz Professor
of Zoology at Harvard University and author of It Ain't Necessarily
So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions.
The panel is the latest installment in the Future of Public Health Symposium Series hosted by Dean Barry Bloom.
"With the sequencing of the human genome, clearly genomics will have an impact on everyone's lives, whether it be in terms of ethics, medicine, public health, or in other areas," said Michael Grusby, associate professor of molecular immunology in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, who helped organize the event.
Added Barbara Burleigh, assistant professor in the department, "The focus of this symposium will be on the positive implications of genomics in public health and, more specifically, infectious diseases."
Venter
will address the scientific aspects of decoding the human genome, she
said, and Keusch and Lewontin will discuss genomics' impact on people,
particularly those in developing countries with large burdens of disease.
The next symposium will be sponsored by the Department of Nutrition on
Thursday, May 3 in Snyder Auditorium.
