NEWS

Lilly researcher to address implications of bioterrorism for public health, health research

CHAPEL HILL -- Bioterrorism and its implications for public health and biomedical research will be the focus of a talk by Dr. Gail Cassell at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health on Tuesday (Feb. 25).

Cassell is vice president of scientific affairs and Distinguished Lilly Research Scholar for Infectious Diseases at Eli Lilly and Co., Lilly Research Laboratories.

Her presentation, free to the public, will take place in the School of Public Health’s Ibrahim Seminar Room, 1301 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Cassell’s talk will be followed by a reception.

"Never before in recent history has there been such an urgent need to mobilize the scientific, medical and public health communities toward an area where so little knowledge exists," Cassell said. "The scientific and public health communities are expected to defend the American people against unconventional weapons. At the same time, the impact of new legislation, issues relative to publication of scientific results and policy debates related to immunization practices represent challenges to these efforts. My lecture will address each of these areas."

Cassell has been significantly involved in the establishment of science policy and legislation related to biomedical research and public health. She is the chairman of the Public and Scientific Affairs Board of the American Society for Microbiology, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and has served as an adviser on infectious diseases and indirect costs of research to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Before joining Eli Lilly, Cassell was the Charles H. McCauley professor and chairman of the department of microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham schools of medicine and dentistry.

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School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415