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010-NW-02

GENETICS EXPERT TO DISCUSS FUTURE OF GENE THERAPY AND TREATMENT OF DISEASES SUCH AS HYPERTENSION, SCHIZOPHRENIA, DIABETES

Jan. 22 Lecture is Third in Genetics Lecture Series Presented by the Irvine Health Foundation and the UCI College of Medicine

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 10, 2002 -- Aravinda Chakravarti, director of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's McKusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine, will be the featured speaker at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at UCI's Crystal Cove Auditorium. It is the third of four events in the genetics lecture series "Going Public with Human Genetics," presented by the Irvine Health Foundation and the UCI College of Medicine. The lecture is free and open to the public.

A noted researcher in his field, Chakravarti has focused his work on common diseases that arise from a combination of genetic and non-genetic factors. His topic, "Genetic Disease: What a Difference a Gene Makes," explores how genes and proteins affect the development and future treatment of diseases such as hypertension, schizophrenia and diabetes.

Another major focus of his research is the development and use of methods to generate efficient genetic maps of complex traits and diseases in isolated human populations. Two examples are efforts to map and identify genes involved in certain forms of deafness and epilepsy in Old Order Mennonites of Lancaster County, Pa., and of high blood pressure in Mennonite and Israeli Arab communities.

The College of Medicine has become a noted resource for information on genetics and a leader in genetics research, especially in the area of cancer genetics. The college's epidemiology division was selected in 1999 to manage two Internet-based informatics systems. The first is for an existing National Cancer Institute (NCI) network of 12 international institutions studying genetic and other causes of breast and colon cancer, and the second will link eight major research centers nationally, including UCI, in the NCI's Cancer Genetics Network. For reservations and information on the Genetics Lecture Series, contact Jean Chong at (949) 824-1914 or jlchong@uci.edu.

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Contact:
Nadine Wilck
(949) 725-9345
wilckpr@home.com

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