NEWS

Briefs

Pevny receives five-year federal grant to advance studies of genes

Dr. Larysa H. Pevny, assistant professor of genetics at the UNC School of Medicine and a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center, has been awarded a five-year federal grant to advance her laboratory’s studies of a trio of genes involved in regulating neural stem cells.

The grant of nearly $1 million from the National Institute of Mental Health provides $200,000 for each of the first four years and $175,000 in the fifth year.

Pevny has identified one of the first known molecular mechanisms in neural stem cell regulation. Eventually, results from her work will be applied to transplantation therapy in animal models of human neurodegenerative diseases.

The UNC Neuroscience Center is an interdepartmental research center whose mission is to promote neuroscience research with specific emphases on brain development, neurogenetics and neurological disease. The goal of its research working groups is to make breakthroughs in key areas most likely to have an impact on neurological and psychiatric disorders in the human population.

Photo URL: To download a photo of Pevny, click to:http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/pevny_larysa.jpg

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Wednesday talk to focus on policy implications of genetic testing

Dr. Wylie Burke, chairman of the department of medical history and ethics at the University of Washington at Seattle School of Medicine, will speak Wednesday (April 10) as a part of the UNC School of Public Health Lecture Series in Genomics and Public Health.

Burke’s lecture, to be held at noon, is titled "Policy Implications of Genetic Testing" and is free to the public. The location is Rosenau Auditorium, 133 Rosenau Hall.

The next seminar series installment will be a noon April 24 panel discussion on the "Future of Genomics and Public Health."

For more information on the seminar series, contact Dr. Bob Millikan, professor of epidemiology in the UNC School of Public Health, at bob_millikan@unc.edu.

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Massachusetts cardiologist to advocate perspective, persistence, purpose to students

Dr. Luanda P. Grazette, a cardiologist with Massachusetts General Hospital, will speak to nearly 150 North Carolina undergraduate students at 11 a.m. Thursday (April 11) at the 2002 Spring Health Professions Forum and Inspirational Speakers in Science Lecture Series hosted by the North Carolina Health Careers Access Program at UNC.

The forum will be held at the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence in Graham Memorial. Her speech is titled "Perspective, Persistence and Purpose: Necessary Ingredients for a Career in Medicine." The lecture is free to the public.

In 1992, Grazette received her master’s degree in public health from the Harvard University School of Public Health and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. After graduation, she became the first black female cardiologist in residence at Emory University.

While at Harvard, Grazette was one of seven medical students selected to be featured on the NOVA series titled "The Making of a Doctor." A follow-up to that series, "Survivor M.D.," aired on PBS in March 2001.

In her current role at Massachusetts General, she devotes significant time to heart failure and transplant research, in addition to seeing patients.

For more information, call (919) 966-2264.

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Speaker to discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender health issues

Dr. Anthony Silvestre, director of the Center for Research on Health and Sexual Orientation at the University of Pittsburgh, will give a lecture Wednesday (April 10) on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health issues.

The lecture, free to the public, is hosted by the diversity task force of the UNC School of Public Health’s department of maternal and child health and will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Ibrahim Seminar Room, 1301 McGavran-Greenberg Hall. A reception will follow.

Silvestre will speak on research funding and adolescent health related to these populations, as well as the development of an effective measure of sexual orientation among youth.

This lecture is sponsored by a grant from the UNC Williamson Committee to Promote Gay and Lesbian Studies. For more information, contact Martha Waller at mwaller@email.unc.edu.

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News Services contact: Deb Saine at (919) 962-8415