Weekly Colloquium on Problems in the Biology of Complex Diseases

Fri, 03/02/2018 - 9:00am to 11:00am

Brought to you by the UA’s Arizona Center for the Biology of Complex Diseases (ABCD):

TOPIC“Biomarkers”
SPEAKER: Stefano Guerra, MD, PhD, MPH — Associate Professor, UA Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health; the Henry E. Dahlberg Chair in Asthma Research at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson; Population Science Director, UA Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, and a UA BIO5 Institute member.
WHEN: Friday, March 2, 2018 | 9-11 a.m.

Weekly Colloquium, Spring 2018 – Problems in the Biology of Complex Diseases
(CMM, MCB, GENE, IMB, PCOL 595H)
Fridays, 9-11 a.m., Keating/BIO5 Room 103, Jan. 12-April 27

SPEAKERS SCHEDULE: Click here [PDF] for a printable schedule for the entire series.

About the Speaker
Dr. Stefano Guerra is an adult pulmonologist and an epidemiologist, whose research focuses mainly on the genetic and molecular components of complex lung diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

He is the principal investigator on a number of NIH-funded studies, including a large prospective biomarker project that uses bio-specimens and phenotypic information available from the adult cohort of the Tucson Epidemiological Study of Airway Obstructive Disease (TESAOD). This epidemiologic study, which used a household-based approach to assess prevalence and longitudinal changes in respiratory health, has utilized the same multi-analyte profiling technique and the same biomarker panel that will be used for the present application. Other biomarker projects in which he is actively involved include the NIH-funded Women’s Health Initiative and a study on molecular biomarkers of asthma and COPD from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.

Dr Guerra also collaborates as a co-principal investigator on the Tucson Children's Respiratory Study (CRS), which is a longitudinal cohort started over two decades ago that studies the childhood origins of adult airway disease requires three distinct areas of expertise: pediatric respiratory health and its determinants, adult respiratory health including asthma and COPD, and epidemiology. He recently won a $3.6 million grant to look at the protein CC16 and implications better management may have toward reducing likelihood of persistance of asthma into adulthood.

About the Lecture Series
Human complex diseases such as asthma, cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, are major biomedical challenges, because they are common but difficult to decipher. The complexity of these diseases is reflected by their phenotypic heterogeneity and likely results from intricate interactions among genetic, environmental and developmental factors that modify disease susceptibility and severity.

Understanding complex diseases is urgent, because these conditions impose a burden on our society. Yet, this goal cannot be achieved by isolated research disciplines. Rather, it requires a novel paradigm that successfully integrates basic and clinical research across multiple fields and translates mechanisms into phenotypes and phenotypes into treatments. This novel paradigm provides the underpinning for this Colloquium.

This colloquium features speakers who are nationally and internationally renowned for their work on environmental biology, immunological and clinical phenotyping, microbiota, developmental biology, epigenetics, genetic epidemiology, population genetics, functional genomics of human and animal models. The series’ theme and vision are unique in that the discussion focuses particularly on the biological components shared by ostensibly distinct complex diseases (for instance, asthma, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases).

The underlying assumption, supported by much emerging evidence, is that these shared components are features that define the mechanistic architecture of complex diseases as a group. The goal of the Colloquium is to provide a platform that will catalyze broad, expert discussions on these foundational topics, thereby fostering the emergence of a new experimental and conceptual paradigm in complex disease biology.

For further information, contact ABCD Director Donata Vercelli, MD, colloquium organizer: donata@email.arizona.edu 

Event Location: 

University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, Keating Building Rm. 103
1657 E. Helen St.
Tucson, AZ 85719