Apr
24
April Café Scientifique with Michael Kobor
Posted by: jdewitt | April 24, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Dear Café Scientifiquers, our next café will happen on Tuesday April 30th, 7:30pm at The Railway Club. Our speaker for the evening will be Dr. Michael Kobor. The details of his talk are as follows:
A Dialogue in Epigenetics: How Does the Environment Get Under Our Skin?
The scientific community has known for some time that both genetics and the environment influence our health and well-being. While extensive research has focused on how our genes affect health outcomes, environmental factors have had less attention. Now a new area of research, known as epigenetics, is expanding upon our knowledge of the human genome. Epigeneticists study how our environment can have a long-term impact on the activity of our genes. Of particular concern to health researchers are the effects of socioeconomic conditions on children, and how early life stress may impact individuals and their genes down the road. Dr. Michael Kobor and his research team make use of recent advances in technology to study this interface between genetics and environment. And it is becoming clearer that what’s written in our DNA is only part of the story. Neither ‘nature,’ nor ‘nurture’ alone, is entirely one’s fate.