"Workplace Injuries and Ergonomics: From Bike Messengers to Office Workers"

Speaker: Jack Dennerlein, Associate Professor of Ergonomics and Safety, Department of Environmental Health

Wednesday, February 16
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Kresge G-3

Lunch will be provided. RSVP to deansoff@hsph.harvard.edu. This event is open to the HSPH community only.

Faculty Appointments

Albert J. Fornace, Jr. and John Quackenbush have been appointed to the HSPH faculty.

Fornace has been appointed research professor of genetics and complex diseases in the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases. He is the former chief of the Gene Response Section at the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, NIH.

A leader in the fields of radiation biology and stress signal transduction, Fornace’s research has improved understanding of the molecular responses and potential risks related to low-level radiation exposure. While DNA-damaging agents were known to trigger important signaling pathways in single-cell organisms, Fornace demonstrated their functions in more complex cells. He was among the first scientists to demonstrate that radiation and other forms of gene-damaging stress can trigger the induction of response genes in mammalian cells. His and his colleagues’ work has included the cloning and characterization of a number of genes responsive to DNA damage, such as the gadd genes, and the role of the tumor suppressor p53 in their regulation. These insights have refined researchers’ understanding of the sensitivity of cells to toxic agents. His characterization of a cell line involved in the screening of an anti-cancer drug has helped him and colleague John Reed of the Burnham Institute identify a gene product called BCL-XL that appears to play a prominent role in a cell’s resistance to toxic agents. These insights, along with his recent studies of the p38 MAP kinase signaling pathway and an inhibitory protein to this pathway called Wip1, provide molecular targets for improved cancer therapy and prevention.

Fornace studied at HSPH from 1976 to 1979 as a research fellow under the guidance of John Little, James Stevens Simmons Professor of Radiobiology, Emeritus.

Quackenbush has been appointed professor of computational biology and bioinformatics jointly at HSPH and at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is an authority in integrating the disciplines of biology, data analysis, and computation. Prior to coming to the Department of Biostatistics, Quackenbush was an investigator at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). There, he led teams that refined the use of microarray hybridization technology to discover genes that are involved in a number of human diseases, used mathematical and statistical models to discover DNA markers that predict outcomes in diseases such as colon cancer, and developed software programs and databases for the analysis of gene expression and other genomic data. The TM4 software suite, developed by Quackenbush and his group, has more than 10,000 registered users.

While at TIGR, Quackenbush held appointments as professor of biochemistry, George Washington University, and as adjunct professor of biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University.