Conference 2014 Speakers
BioDefense
Dr. David Sanders
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University
David Sanders received his Bachelor of Science degree from Yale College in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. Following a position as a Visiting Scientist at the University of California at San Francisco, where he studied signal-transducing GTPases, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, which is affiliated with M.I.T. It was there that he began his studies on the entry of viruses into cells with a focus on the inhibition of infection and applications to gene therapy. He joined the Markey Center for Structural Biology at Purdue in 1995, where he is also a member of the Cancer Center.
Dr. Sanders was the discoverer of a biochemical reaction that leads to the entry of cancer-causing retroviruses into cells. His work on the Ebola virus led to his participation in the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Biological Weap-ons Proliferation Prevention Program, a product of the Nunn-Lugar legislation. His responsibilities included inspecting the Vector laboratory in Siberia, which was the site of biological-weapons development in the era of the Soviet Union. He has investigated the transmission of viruses from other animals, especially birds, to humans and is often invited to speak on biodefense, evolution, gene therapy, vaccination and influenza viruses in public forums, including regular interviews on WIBC in Indianapolis, He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and an American Cancer Society Re-search Scholar.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 4th, 2014
HIV/AIDS Advancements in Research
Dr. Jeffrey Fisher, PhD
Director, Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention (CHIP) Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychology University of Connecticut
Dr. Jeffrey Fisher is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut and the founding Director of its Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention. He has published extensively on factors associated with HIV risk behavior and has done conceptual and empirical work in the area of increasing HIV preventive behavior. He has designed, implemented, and evaluated several effective HIV risk behavior change interventions in multiple populations. His work also focuses on increasing adherence to ART and on health behavior change in general. Dr. Fisher's research on HIV to date has involved MSM, injection drug users, heterosexual adolescents, and individuals who are HIV infected. He has been awarded 9 major HIV risk reduction grants for the U.S. National Institutes of Health since 1989.
Dr. Fisher has been involved with over $30.6 million in grants as Principal Investigator, Co-Director, or Co-Investigator, and has been Principal Investigator on $22.7 million in external grants. He has lectured and consulted internationally in the areas of HIV preventive behavior and adherence to medications. In addition, he has served on the National Institute of Mental Health Psychobiological, Biological, and Neuroscience Subcommittee, the Mental Health Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Research Review Committee, and the editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Fisher is a fellow of the American Psychological Society and Divisions 8, 9, and 34 of the American Psychological Association.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 4th, 2014
Public Policy on Smoking and Tobacco
Dr. Andrew Hyland
Chair; Department of Health Behavior; Division of Cancer Prevention & Population Sciences Roswell Park Cancer Institute; Director New York State Smokers' Quitline
Andrew Hyland, PhD is the Chair of the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and he also directs the Survey Research and Data Acquisition Resource at Roswell Park. Dr. Hyland holds a PhD in Epidemiology and a MA in Statistics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Hyland’s primary research interests lie in evaluating the impact of policies aimed at reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with the use of tobacco products. He has over 200 peer reviewed publications, is the principal investigator on numerous grants and contracts, and is the Deputy Editor for the journal Tobacco Control. Dr. Hyland is the scientific leader of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study, which is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Food and Drug Administration to study nearly 60,000 adults and children to understand the impact of regulations to reduce the disease burden caused by tobacco products. Examples of his work include evaluations of the economic impact of clean indoor air laws, creating methods to estimate levels of secondhand smoke exposure in the workplace and the home, developing methods to track contraband tobacco products and their impact on smoking cessation, and assessing the impact of a variety of tobacco policy measures on tobacco use behavior the population.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 4th, 2014
Social Dimensions of Malaria since the Mid 20th Century: From
Eradication to Control and Back
Dr. S. Patrick Kachur, MD, MPH, FACPM
Chief of the DPDM Malaria Branch
S. Patrick Kachur, MD, MPH, FACPM is a medical epidemiologist and chief of CDC’s Malaria Branch. He trained at Kent State University, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, and Johns Hopkins University. Since 1995 he has conducted field research and provided technical assistance to malaria control programs in Africa and around the world. He has coauthored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and has received multiple awards from the US Public Health Service, where he is a commissioned officer.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 5th, 2014
Neurodegeneration, Neurotoxicology, & Gene-Environment Interactions
Jason Cannon, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Health Sciences and Toxicology
The majority of human diseases are thought to arise from interactions between environmental factors, genetic susceptibility, and aging. The interplay between these factors is particularly important in neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease. My laboratory primarily studies the contribution environmental exposures have in neurodegeneration and the importance of gene-environment interactions. We are exploring the role these interactions may play in disease pathogenesis. The information we have learned about these important interactions may also be used to design and test new potentially therapeutic approaches. Specific projects include: 1) Creation of new gene-environment interaction models of neurodegeneration; 2) Characterization of newly created transgenic rat models of Parkinson’s disease; 3) Heterocyclic amine exposure and neurodegeneration; and 4) Acute pesticide exposure during development and late-life neurological dysfunction. The major techniques utilized in my lab are: neurobehavioral analysis, stereotaxic infusion, gene therapy/viral vector-mediated gene transfer, neurochemistry (HPLC w/electrochemical detection) and histology/microscopy.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 5th, 2014
Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Radiology
Ulrike Dydak, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Health Sciences Purdue University
Dr. Dydak’s research is focused on the development of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) for the noninvasive in-vivo assessment of biologically important molecules in normal biochemical processes and the disruption of these molecules in human disease and disorders. A long-term goal of this research is to translate the knowledge gained through the development and application of novel MRS methods into viable clinical diagnostic procedures that aid in disease detection as well as assessment of treatment response. Special emphasis of her work lies on the development of the in vivo detection and quantification of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter, to study manganese-induced parkinsonian neurotoxicity. A second focus lies on the development of whole-liver phosphorous (31P) magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging of the human liver to improve treatment monitoring in liver cancer. Dr. Dydak holds an adjunct appointment at the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at IU School of Medicine, where part of her research lab is located. Her current research topics comprise:
· Neuroimaging to study occupational manganese neurotoxicity
· Quantification of in vivo GABA measurements by MRS
· GABA mapping by MEGA spectroscopic imaging
· Fast 3D multi-nuclear MRSI (31P MRS) to monitor response to radiation treatment in the human liver
· High resolution 1H MRS in the rat brain
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 5th, 2014
Emergence of Acute Hepatitis C in Young Indiana Residents
Brittany M. Gross, MPH
Viral Hapatitis Prevention Coordinator; Indiana State Department of Health
Brittany M. Gross, MPH is the new Viral Hepatitis Prevention Coordinator at the Indiana State Department of Health. She received her Masters of Public Health degree from Indiana University Bloomington. Previously, she attended Eastern Kentucky University where she majored in Chemistry and a received a Minor in Biology. She began in this new position in January 2013.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 5th, 2014
Nutritional Epidemiology
Ka He
Chair and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Indiana University Bloomington
Dr. He is a nutrition epidemiologist. He received his ScD in Nutritional Epidemiology from Harvard University, MPH from Tufts University and MD from Soochow University. Dr. He was an Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, and a tenured Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. He is an elected fellow of American Heart Association (AHA) and a fellow of American College of Nutrition (ACN). His primary research interests lie in nutritional epidemiology, specifically, diet and nutrients in relation to chronic diseases. Dr. He is the Principal Investigator of several NIH-supported projects, including trace elements and cardio vascular disease risk factors; trace elements and risk of stroke; amino acids, protein and obesity; fatty acids and ischemic stroke; and dietary supplement use and risk of pancreatic cancer. Dr. He is also the Principal Investigator of the project - diet including supplement use and colon cancer - supported by American Cancer Society.
DATE TO SPEAK:
APRIL 5th, 2014