Katie Peichel, Nina Salama speak at March 24 Science Friday

Brief

Center faculty members Drs. Katie Peichel and Nina Salama are the speakers for the next Science Friday, from noon to 1 p.m., March 24, in Pelton Auditorium.

Peichel will speak on "Fishing for the secrets of complex traits." Most human disease, including cancer, are "complex traits," meaning that multiple genetic and environmental factors contribute to disease susceptibility and progression. In order to untangle the factors that contribute to complex traits in humans, Peichel studies complex traits in experimentally tractable model systems such as fish. Genetic studies of complex traits, such as mating behaviors in stickleback fish, can inform genetic studies of diseases in humans.

Salama will talk about "Helicobacter pylori, a Nobel Prize-winning bug." In 2005, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Drs. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren for the discovery of H. pylori and its role in ulcer disease. H. pylori chronically infect the stomach in 50 percent of the world's population, but most people don't get sick. However, after decades of infection, a significant number of people develop stomach ulcers or even stomach cancer. Study of this bacterium impacts our knowledge of bacteria, human-cell biology, cancer progression and public-health cancer-prevention strategies.

Science Friday info

For more information about this and future Science Fridays, contact Dr. Karen Peterson at kpeterso@fhcrc.org.

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