Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., Sc.D., L.H.D., will give a presentation on “Gene-Environment Interactions in the Development of Chronic Diseases” from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22, in Room 3.104A, near the Health Science Center’s Briscoe Library.
Dr. Olden’s presentation will focus on the role of environmental exposures in chronic diseases including autism, aging, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Olden is chief of the metastasis section of the laboratory of molecular carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and is the Yerby Visiting Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
He is the most recent past director of the NIEHS and is the first African-American director of a national institute of health.
“Unfortunately, most of the synthetic chemicals to which humans are now exposed have only been recently introduced into the environment; hence, they have not co-evolved with the human genome and their protein products," Dr. Olden said prior to his San Antonio visit. "It is now well-established by research in toxicology and pharmacogenetics that polymorphism (e.g., single base changes, insertions or deletions) exist in most, if not all, of the genes involved in biological processes such as the uptake, metabolism and excretion of drugs and environmental xenobiotics, DNA repair, cell cycle control and membrane signaling; and that such genetic variations can modify an individual’s risk for disease by altering the amount or activity of the respective protein products."
The presentation is sponsored by the Health Science Center’s Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen and the department of family and community medicine, as well as the South Central Area Health Education Center.
