Dr. Rick Kittles, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine
Cancer Research Center
University of Chicago

Dr. Kittles' research focus is to formally evaluate genetic mechanisms involved in complex diseases. His work entails understanding how genetic variation is structured across human populations and how that variation contributes to inter-individual variation in disease susceptibility and other phenotypes such as drug response and skin color. Currently his work
explores sequence variation within candidate genes in well-characterized populations for prostate and breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and human pigmentation. His interests also include biological and socio-cultural issues related to "Race" and health disparities and the utility of admixture mapping for genes for common traits and disease in African Americans and Hispanic Americans.  Dr. Kittles also is currently scientific director of the African Ancestry Inc., a genetic testing service for determining individuals' African ancestry.

Faculty profile:

http://biomed.uchicago.edu/common/faculty/kittles.html

http://medicine.uchicago.edu/faculty_profile/faculty_profile.asp?empl_id=9960

Dr. Kittles  Seminar:

Thursday, May 1st 3:30PM

Neuroscience Research Building (NRB) Auditorium

Dr. Esteban González Burchard , M.D., M.P.H.

Assistant Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

 

Dr. Esteban Burchard grew up in the Latino section of San Francisco, the Mission District, with his mother a former migrant worker who later became a teacher. When Burchard was a medical

resident, he conceived the idea for the Genetics of Asthma in Latino Americans (GALA) Study, which compares genetic, environmental, and clinical characteristics between Puerto Rican and Mexican asthmatics. Puerto Rican children have the highest asthma prevalence, morbidity and mortality, yet they do not achieve the same benefit from asthma medications as other populations. From this study, Dr. Burchard has discovered that Puerto Rican children have lower drug response to albuterol, the most commonly prescribed bronchodilator asthma medication, than Mexican children. Dr. Burchard’s findings help explain why subjects of Mexican or Puerto

Rican ancestry differ in their response to bronchodilators and raises questions about the efficacy of medications for minority populations.

 

“ What we saw was a pretty clear ethnic response

to a commercially prescribed medicine. To my

mind, that is a travesty.”

 

 

***Special Joint Seminar with the Immunology Forum***

Dr. Olivera Finn, Ph. D.

Professor & Chair, Dept. of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh,

School of Medicine, President, American Association of Immunologists

 

 

Dr. Olivera Finn, Professor and Chair of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Immunology, has been leader of the UPCI Immunology Program since 1991, the year that she became a faculty

member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Finn received her PhD in 1980 from Stanford University and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford in the Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology in 1982. Dr. Finn is actively involved in a number of professional societies such

as AAI, AACR, and Women in Cancer Research. She is also a member of the AACR Task Force on Immunology and is an active participant in NCI activities. Her research is focused on tumor antigen discovery and cancer vaccines. She has received the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award, UPCI Scientific Leadership Award, and University of Pittsburgh Mentor of the Year Award.

 

 

Past Speakers

 

Dr. Mina Bissell, Ph.D.

Distinguished Scientist, Life Sciences Division

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

 

2007 Pezcoller Foundation-AACP International Award for Cancer Research

 

2008 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Excellence in Science Award

 

 

Cell Biologist Mina Bissell left Iran at age eighteen and embarked on a career in American science. Her fearless approach and unconventional thinking have helped

shape ideas about how breast tumors develop. Dr. Bissell is the recipient of the 2007 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research for her pioneering work on the relationship between cancer genetics and the three-dimensional structure of cells and tissues. She has also been selected to be the recipient of 2008 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Excellence in Science award for her paradigm shifting conceptualization of "dynamic reciprocity." Her seminal papers in Science, Nature, and Journal of Cell Biology have been referred to as “milestones in cancer.” Her long-term goal is to develop a more realistic three-dimensional model of breast cancer that mimics its normal situation, and can be used to study cancer

pathogenesis and test anticancer drugs.

 

“Diversity and different points of view are good for

science. It's not just because 50 percent of this society is made up of women—I think that women do bring different insights to science”

 

Links:

 

Bissell Lab Website

Incyte Genomics Interview

Nature Medicine Interview