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Upcoming Events | Upcoming Northwestern Events | Upcoming Area Events Past Events The following page contains a listing of prior C2S events starting with the most recent, including colloquia, presentations, and conferences. Audio, text, and other materials are available for download where links are provided.
Ana Diez-Roux, PhD From Populations to Individuals and Back Again: Thursday, April 2, 2009 Wieboldt Hall, Room 421 Videocast Live on the Evanston Campus Epidemiologist Ana V. Diez-Roux focuses on environmental, spacial, and social factors in health outcomes and health disparities. Her most recent work explores the effects of neighborhoods on cardiovascular risk and the use of agent-based models in understanding the spatial patterning of health. Diez-Roux is professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, as well as director of the Center for Integrative Approaches to Health Disparities and associate director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health at the University of Michigan. She holds an MD from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a master’s in public health and a PhD from Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins. Co-sponsored with the Institute for Healthcare Studies and the Program in Public Health's Diversity Committee, Feinberg School of Medicine
Ana Diez-Roux, PhD Neighborhood Environments and Inequalities Friday, April 3, 2009 The Robert H. Lurie Research Center Co-sponsored with the Program in Public Health's Diversity Commmittee, Feinberg School of Medicine Rachel Dunifon Parenting in Vain: Monday, February 23, 2009 Annenberg Hall, Room 345 Rachel Dunifon focuses on the role of family policy in the lives of children and their families. Her research explores the influence of welfare reform and other policies on the well-being of children; the effects of maternal work conditions and behavior on children; how specific living arrangements influence children; and the role grandparents play in the lives of youth. Dunifon will speak on the influence of resident fathers' parenting styles in early transitions to parenthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Dunifon and her colleagues find family-based predictors of early parenthood differ between men and women and for those living with biological fathers versus stepfathers. Dunifon is associate professor in policy analysis and management at Cornell University. She holds a PhD in human development and social policy from Northwestern University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan's Poverty Research and Training Center.
Andrew Noymer War, Race, and Disease: Monday, December 1, 2008 Annenberg Hall, Room 303 Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Rubloff Building, 701v A historical epidemiologist, Noymer uses patterns of disease as a lens into social structures of the past. His work to date has focused on influenza pandemics, including how the 1918 “Spanish” flu affected the course of other diseases and the sex differential of mortality. This research also explores the pandemic’s differential impact by socioeconomic status. In more recent work, Noymer turns to social epidemiology more generally and long-term trends in mortality vis–à–vis early life influences. Other research interests include the demography of developing countries and mathematical models of social phenomena. Noymer received his MSc in medical demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a scientific staff member of the Health and Global Change Project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. Clarence "Lance" Gravlee, PhD How Race Becomes Biology: The Embodiment of Social Inequality Monday, November 3, 2008 Annenberg Hall, Room 303 Anthropologist Clarence “Lance” Gravlee focuses on the social and cultural causes of racial inequities in health using a biocultural framework for health and human development. In a recent study of African Americans in Tallahassee, Fla., he employs community-based, participatory research to explore how racism affects their health. Gravlee is assistant professor of anthropology, affiliated with the department of behavioral science and community health, African American studies program, and Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. He holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Florida and was a community health scholar at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Linda J. Waite, PhD The Link Between Social Isolation and Inflammation: Monday, October 27, 2008 Annenberg Hall, Room 345 Sociologist Linda J. Waite focuses on the links between biology, psychology, and the social world in relation to gender, family structure, aging, and working families. Her most recent projects include studies on social life, health, and illness at older ages; contemporary families and experiences of work; social environment, loneliness, stress, and health; and loneliness, stress, and health in aging. Waite is co-director of the Alfred O. Sloan Center on Parents, Children, and Work; co-director of the MD/PhD Program in Medicine, the Social Sciences, and Aging at the University of Chicago; and director of the Center on Aging at NORC/University of Chicago. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan. Christopher R. Browning, PhD The Sociospatial Context of Cardiovascular Risk Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Annenberg Hall, Room 303 Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Wieboldt Hall,
Room 421 Christopher R. Browning is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Initiative in Population Research at the Ohio State University. Drawing on theories of urban social processes and the life course, his work examines the neighborhood context of physical and psychological health and well being. He also addresses the role of immigration and race/ethnic disparities in health. He is Principal Investigator of an NICHD-sponsored study exploring the link between features of urban neighborhoods and early adolescent risk-taking behavior. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Diane Lauderdale, PhD Sleep and Obesity: Weighing the Epidemiological Evidence Monday, October 13, 2008 Annenberg Hall, Room 345 Epidemiologist Diane Lauderdale focuses on the social determinants of health behaviors and chronic disease risk, as well as health and health challenges of immigrant populations. Her most recent work explores the distribution of sleep patterns across populations, the effectiveness of different measurements of sleep patterns, and health factors and effects associated with sleep. Lauderdale is associate professor of health studies and director of the master’s program for clinical professionals at the University of Chicago, and co-director of the Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging at NORC/U. of Chicago. She holds a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. W. Thomas Boyce, MD Is There a Biology of Misfortune? Monday, May 19, 2008
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Northwestern University Annenberg Hall W. Thomas Boyce is Professor and Sunny Hill Health Center BC Leadership Chair in Child Development, jointly appointed to the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), the British Columbia Research Institute for Children's and Women's Health, and the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Boyce's research interests lie in developmental psychopathology, biology-context interactions in disease pathogenesis, social disparities in health, and psychobiological reactivity and social hierarchies in childhood. His work has demonstrated how psychological stress and neurobiological reactivity to aversive social contexts operate together to produce disorders of both physical and mental health in childhood populations. A central goal of his work is the development of a new synthesis between biomedical and social epidemiologic accounts of human pathogenesis and an articulation of the public health implications of this synthetic view. Health and Attainment Over the Lifecourse: Friday, May 16, 2008 Click here for more information Dr. Richard Rogers "Social Disparities and Health:
Sex Differentials in Mortality"
Monday, October 29, 2007
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Northwestern University Annenberg Hall, Room 303
2120 Campus Drive Evanston Campus Videocast live to:
Wieboldt Hall, Room 421
303 E. Chicago Avenue
Chicago Campus
and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Conference Room 118 1001 University Place and
Children's Memorial Hospital
1731 N. Marcey St. Rm. 400.
Dr. Rogers is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder; and Director of the Population Program at the Institute of Behavioral Science. His research aims to understand how social inequality affects a population's physical health, functional independence, and overall length of life. Rogers analyzes how factors such as ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, education and related factors affect adult mortality rates. Dr. Herman Taylor
Director, Jackson Heart Study Professor of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center "Local Study, Global Significance: The Jackson Heart Study" Monday, Nov 12, 2007 3:30-5:00 p.m. Northwestern University Hughes Auditorium, Robert E. Lurie Research Center 303 E. Superior Street
Chicago Campus Videocast live to: Annenberg Hall Room 345 2120 Campus Drive Evanston Campus and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Conference Room 118 1001 University Place, Evanston and Children's Memorial Hospital Suite 400, Rooms A/B-459/460 1731 N. Marcey St., Chicago Dr.Taylor's research focuses on cardiovascular health disparities, with a particular concentration on African Americans. He is the principle investigator and overall director of the Jackson Heart Study, a single-site, prospective, epidemiologic investigation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among African Americans from the Jackson, Mississippi metropolitan area. Following his medical training at Harvard Medical School, his postgraduate training included a residency in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill; and a masters of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is currently a professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Dr. Aaron Shirley Professor for the Study of Health Disparities and a clinical professor of epidemiology at Jackson State University, and a visiting professor of biology at Tougaloo College.
Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar
Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health
University of Michigan
"Under the Skin: Socioeconomic Status, Stress, and Immune Function"
Thursday, January 17, 2008
4:00 - 5:15 p.m.
Annenberg Hall, Room 345
2120 Campus Drive
Evanston Campus
Videocast live to:
Wieboldt Hall, Room 421
339 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago Campus
&
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare
1001 University Place, Conference Room 118 A & B, Evanston
&
Children's Memorial Hospital
1731 N. Marcey St., Suite 400, Rooms A/B-459/460, Chicago
Dr. Dowd received her PhD in public affairs and demography, with training in economics from Princeton University in 2004. Her dissertation research used Taiwanese data to assess socioeconomic status gradients (SES) in 13 biomarkers of neuroendocrine, metabolic, and immune functioning. Her current work is focusing on (a) SES gradients in stress and immune function biomarkers such as cytomegalovirus and Herpes Virus Simplex-1; (b) the links between maternal health and behavior, birth weight, and child-adult health; and (c) the differential validity of self reports of health by SES.
Dr. Dowd is a candidate in the Cross-School Faculty Search in Population and Health. This position will be jointly held across at least two schools: Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education and Social Policy, and/or Feinberg School of Medicine. The appointment will also be in Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health at the Institute for Policy Research. The following departments could be involved: Anthropology, Economics, Human Development and Social Policy, Preventive Medicine, Sociology, and/or Statistics.
Xingyou Zhang, PhD Dr. Xingyou Zhang is a health geographer and biostatistician earning a Ph.D. in geography and MS in statistics from the University of Cincinnati. Currently at the Robert Graham Center of Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care his research interests include linkages between socio-demographic changes (including aging, migration, segregation, poverty, and other variables) and disparities in health status and health services. His work focuses on health related projects which seek to clarify the links between social and environmental changes, and socio-spatial disparities in health outcomes, and related policies and practices.
Dr. Zhang is a candidate in the Cross-School Faculty Search in Population and Health. This position will be jointly held across at least two schools: Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education and Social Policy, and/or Feinberg School of Medicine. The appointment will also be in Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health at the Institute for Policy Research. The following departments could be involved: Anthropology, Economics, Human Development and Social Policy, Preventive Medicine, Sociology, and/or Statistics. Wendy Berry Mendes, PhD "Stress and Thinking: How Neuroendocrine Reactivity Thursday, April 24, 2008 Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Children’s Memorial Hospital Wendy Berry Mendes is an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University. As the principal investigator of a grant from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, Dr. Mendes is researching the neuroendocrine and cardiovascular consequences of expecting and experiencing discrimination. Additionally, she is the principal investigator on a study that examines how humiliation engenders anger, aggression, and retribution. Dr. Mendes’ research considers the full scope of human development from infants to octogenarians to understand the development of stereotyping and biases, and the influence of stress on decision-making. Dr. Mendes’ research interests include inter-group relations and stigmatization, and effects of emotion and stress states on cognitive processing, behavior, and physiology.
Carlos Mendes de Leon, PhD Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Carlos F. Mendes de Leon, PhD, is a social epidemiologist, professor in the departments of internal medicine and preventive medicine, and associate director of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging at Rush University Medical Center. His research focuses on health disparities in disability and related outcomes in older adults, and includes a particular interest in the complex interplay between social conditions and biological processes and their consequences in aging humans. He is principal investigator of a large, population-based study on social and racial disparities in aging-related disability. An important goal of this study is to increase our understanding of the role of neighborhood environments in health and functional outcomes in older age. After his doctoral training in preventive medicine and community health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of epidemiology and public health at Yale University and then became part of the faculty. He joined the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging in 1996. Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MAPP Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MAPP is a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Ob/Gyn, Medicine-Geriatrics, and the Cancer Research Center, core faculty in the MacLean Center on Clinical Medical Ethics, and Director of the Chicago Core on Biomarkers in Population-Based Health and Aging Research, part of the Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging at the University of Chicago. Her research merges biomedical and demography of aging perspectives to identify reciprocal influences of intimate social relationships and health. Her primary interest is deciphering the biological pathways linking women's social life and sexual relationships to health and health outcomes, particularly in the context of aging and life-threatening illness. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, the first national study of sexuality at older ages. Her clinical work focuses on treatment of cervical pre-cancer and on female sexual dysfunction. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan (political science and education), Brown University School of Medicine, and University of Chicago Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. She completed her ob/gyn residency, serving as Chief Resident, at Northwestern University and a research fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Chicago. Elissa Epel, PhD Elissa Epel has long-standing interests in social and psychobiological stress mechanisms and the impact of stress physiology on food intake, insulin resistance, obesity, and premature aging at the cellular level. Her primary study is on family caregivers and stress, and she attempts to understand, from a psychobiological and genetic perspective why some people are vulnerable and others are resilient to the chronic stress of caregiving. She is currently collaborating on a project to understand how stress affects the telomere/telomerase maintenance system. In 2005 she was awarded the Neal Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research and an American Psychological Association Health Psychology award for demonstrating novel links between stress and stress arousal with markers of cellular aging.
Stephen McGarvey, PhD, MPH Stephen McGarvey is concerned with issues of human population biology and international health, specifically socioeconomic and behavioral changes related to modernization, tropical parasitology, child nutritional status and health, and environmental issues. McGarvey earned a PhD in anthropology from Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and an MPH in epidemiology from Yale University in 1984. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Human Biology Association, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, American Public Health Association, and co-editor of the
Annals of Human Biology.
Neal Halfon, MD, MPH "Developmental Health and Health Policy" Neal Halfon, MD, MPH is director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, and also directs the Child and Family Health Program in the UCLA School of Public Health, and the National Center for Infant and Early Childhood Health Policy. Dr. Halfon is professor of pediatrics in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; of community health sciences in the UCLA School of Public Health; and of public policy in the UCLA School of Public Affairs. He is also a consultant in the health program at the RAND Corporation
Ariel Kalil, Associate Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago, is a developmental psychologist who studies how economic conditions affect child and family functioning. Her projects have examined transitions from welfare to work, barriers to the employment of welfare recipients, as well as family processes and child development in female-headed, teenage-parent, and cohabiting-couple households. Kalil received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan in 1996. Before joining the Harris School faculty in 1999, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan’s Poverty Research and Training Center (now the National Poverty Center). She is also affiliated with the University of Chicago’s Population Research Center, the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, and the Sloan Center on Working Families. Dr. Kalil is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Policy Research. Dr. Raynard S. Kington Monday, October 30, 2006 Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Dr. Raynard S. Kington is deputy director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He shares in the overall leadership, policy direction, and coordination of NIH biomedical research and research training programs. His research has focused on the role of social factors--especially socioeconomic status--as determinants of health. His current research includes studies of the health and socioeconomic status of black immigrants, differences in populations in willingness to participate in genetic research, and racial and ethnic differences in infectious disease rates. Dr. Kington received his BS and MD from the University of Michigan. Following his residency at Michael Reese Medical Center, he was appointed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his MBA and a PhD in health policy and economics. He is board certified in internal medicine and public health and preventive Dr. Linda Gallo The Reserve Capacity Model: Monday, October 9, 2006 Dr. Linda C. Gallo is an associate professor of psychology and a co-director of the Center for Behavioral and Community Health Studies (BACH) at San Diego State University (SDSU). Her research is largely focused on the psychosocial factors that contribute to disparities in physical and mental health experienced by disadvantaged populations. She is currently a principal or co-investigator of four NIH-funded studies focused on health disparities and Latino health issues. Dr. Gallo is the author of more than 30 articles and book chapters and the recipient of early career awards from the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the health psychology division of the American Psychological Association. She received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Southern Illinois University and completed her master's and doctorate in clinical psychology-with an emphasis on health-at the University of Utah. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular behavioral medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, she joined the SDSU faculty and the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. C2S Summer Biomarker Institute Click here for more information
The Department of Sociology and present Health and Mortality Differentials Among Adults: Does Selection Matter? Monday, May 15, 2006 Demographer Alberto Palloni is president of the Population Association of America and director of the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include the relationship between health and social stratification; models for the spread of HIV/AIDS; mathematical and statistical applications to demographic problems; mortality and fertility; and the relationship between population and development. Palloni is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and part of the National Academy of Sciences panel investigating the determinants of race and ethnic differentials in health and mortality among elderly adults in the U.S. The Spring C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series begins Videocast live on the Chicago Campus Dr. Tené T. Lewis is an assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Rush University Medical Center. Her current research is largely focused on the psychological and social correlates of adverse cardiovascular outcomes in African-American women. Her most recent work documents a linkage between chronic exposure to everyday discrimination and coronary artery calcification – an early stage of heart disease. Dr. Lewis received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology with Honors and Distinction from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and received her Masters degree and PhD in Clinical/Health Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2004 she was named as a Health Disparities Scholar at the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. You can access the full audio of Dr. Lewis's talk by clicking this link. C2S and the Northwestern University Department of Psychology Professor Chen's research focuses on the psychological pathways that might explain the links between low socioeconomic status and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy teens and immune and neuroendocrine markers in adolescents with asthma. She is co-director of the Psychobiology of Health Lab, a William T. Grant Research Scholar, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar at the University of British Columbia. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. You can access the full audio of Dr. Chen's talk by clicking this link. C2S and the Northwestern University Department of Psychology Professor Miller's research focuses on stress and the behavioral and biological mechanisms through which thoughts and feelings associated with stress influence disease processes in the body. His current research emphasizes the study of biological pathways and examines whether chronic stress and depressive symptoms promote inflammatory processes implicated in coronary heart disease. He is co-director of the Psychobiology of Health Lab at the University of British Columbia. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. You can access the full audio of Dr. Miller's talk by clicking this link. C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series Clarence (Lance) C. Gravlee is an assistant professor with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida. Specializing in biocultural approaches to health and human development, cultural dimensions of psychosocial stress, and human biological variation, Dr. Gravlee's work as a medical anthropologist had shed light on a number of key areas in the field. Honored in 2005 as an emerging scholar by the Society for Medical Anthropology and American Anthropological Association, his research with other colleagues in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico) and United States looks to identify the relationship between skin color, culture, and blood pressure. This work integrates qualitative and quantitative ethnographic methods with epidemiologic and biological techniques to isolate cultural and biological dimensions of skin color and the relationship with blood pressure in Puerto Ricans of mixed African ancestry. Additionally, Dr. Gravlee's recent work has also examined the causal pathways of ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in disease in the Healthy Environments Partnership, a community-based participatory research project in Detroit. The Partnership seeks to understand and address aspects of the social and physical environments that shape racial and socioeconomic inequalities in cardiovascular disease. Dr. Gravlee and colleagues at the Center for Demography and Population Health received a Social Science Program Enhancement Grant from FSU to develop a Center for Health Disparities Research. The project aims to develop a multidisciplinary program of externally funded, community-based and population-based research on the sociocultural determinants of social inequalities in health. Key areas of emphasis include (1) high blood pressure in the African Diaspora, (2) racial disparities in low birth weight and pregnancy outcomes, (3) social stress and disability, and (4) social inequalities in adult mortality. You can access the full audio of Dr. Gravlee's talk by clicking this link. C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series Dr. Sheldon Cohen is the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Over the last 20 years Dr. Cohen has been interested in how psychological and social factors influence susceptibility to disease, especially the common cold. Much of his work uses a unique paradigm in which he assesses psychosocial characteristics of individuals and then intentionally exposes them to viruses that cause colds and flu. Approximately 1/3 of those exposed to a virus develop a verifiable clinical illness. His talk will review the roles of social stress, social networks and childhood and adulthood social status in predicting who develops colds when exposed to a virus. He will also discuss the specific types of stressful events that put people at risk for illness, as well as the role of personality in adult susceptibility. Finally, he will present data intended to address the issue of how “external” factors such as stressful life events and social networks “get under the skin.” Dr. Cohen has infected over 1,000 people over the last decade or so, so you might not want to sit too close to the speaker! You can access the full audio of Dr. Cohen's talk by clicking this link. C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series Dr. Madeleine U. Shalowitz is assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and is director of the Section on Child and Family Health Studies at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH). A developmental-behavioral pediatrician and health services researcher, Dr. Shalowitz's clinical academic career focused on children who were at developmental risk, were undernourished and/or in foster care. She now co-leads several projects emphasizing the importance of academic-community partnership to understand the pathways leading to health disparities for women and young children. Current federal funding addresses childhood asthma, and pregnancy and early childhood health. In particular, ENH, Northwestern University (C2S) and the Lake County Health Department Community Health Centers have formed an academic-community partnership, one of five partnerships nationally that are the NICHD Community Child Health Network. For this project, Shalowitz and her NU colleagues Greg Duncan, Emma Adam, Chris Kuzawa, and Thom McDade will participate in an investigation of the bio-behavioral mechanisms underlying the effects of stress and resiliency on the health of women during pregnancy and of their children after birth. You can access the full audio of Dr. Shalowitz's talk by clicking this link. C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series Dr. Richard S. Cooper joined Loyola University Medical School in 1989 as Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. A major research focus of the department has been a description of the evolution of cardiovascular disease across the course of the African diaspora. This work has demonstrated the determining role of changing environmental conditions on the evolution of cardiovascular risk status among populations of African descent. An additional dimension to this work has been the use of the tools of genetic epidemiology to explore the pathogenesis of hypertension and obesity. Currently funded research has identified genomic regions associated with both of these conditions and attempts are being made to clone the responsible genes. In addition, a wide range of research on population genetics has been based on the access to the DNA resources from these important projects. One of these collaborative projects helped provide the rationale for the large scale NIH mapping project - the HapMap - which has been used to extend the human genome project. Dr. Cooper has also been an outspoken advocate of the need to incorporate a broad social understanding of race into the interpretation of genetic research on ethnic differences. You can access the full audio of Dr. Cooper's talk by clicking this link. C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff is a professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Physiology at Northwestern University and in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. In addition, she is the Associate Director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and its Director of Basic Science. She studies the role of the gonadal hormones, inhibin and activin, in the regulation of target tissues in the female reproductive axis. She has investigated the use of inhibin as a marker of epithelial ovarian cancer, and developed animal models for the study of cancer. Because no early detection method exists for ovarian cancer, an important aspect of this research is to identify the factors that contribute to the development of the initial neoplastic lesions. Additionally, she has investigated the role and regulation of activin and its signaling proteins in the breast and found a loss of activin signaling capacity in advanced disease. You can access the full audio of Dr. Woodruff's talk by clicking this link. C2S Biweekly Colloquium Series begins The C2S Colloquium biweekly series began Monday, October 10. The series launched with Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser of Ohio State University. Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser holds the S. Robert Davis Chair of Medicine in The Ohio State University College of Medicine; she is also professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Director of the Division of Health Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, as well as a member of the OSU Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research. Working in the area of psychoneuroimmunology, she has authored more than 175 articles, chapters, and books, most in collaboration with Dr. Ronald Glaser. Their studies have demonstrated important health consequences of stress, including slower wound healing and impaired vaccine responses in older adults; more recently they have also shown that chronic stress substantially accelerates age-related changes in IL-6, a cytokine that has been linked to some cancers, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and frailty and function decline. In addition, their programmatic work has focused on the ways in which personal relationships influence immune and endocrine function, and health. You can access a written summary of Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser's talk by clicking this link. C2S
Introductory Conference The introductory conference for C2S was held June 6, 2005 at Northwestern University's Evanston campus. The conference was designed to promote greater synergy among social, biomedical, and life scientists on campus. The C2S social scientists - who include experts in policy, social inequality, human development, and the psychobiology of stress and immunity - learned about the research of their colleagues in life and biomedical sciences at Northwestern and discussed the center's first research programs. You
can access the conference agenda and links to faculty presentations
here.
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