MRC-PHE Annual Distinguished Guest Lecture 2016

17:00 - 18:00 Wednesday 1st June 2016

Anthony de Rothschild Lecture Theatre, 2nd Floor, Faculty of Medicine Building,

Imperial College London, St Mary's campus, Norfolk Place, Paddington, London W2 1PG

We are pleased to welcome Professor Duncan Thomas as our Speaker

Professor of Preventive Medicineand the Verna R. Richter Chair in Cancer Research at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

Professor Thomas will speak on ""Environmental health and primary prevention in a high-dimensional world: the utility of precision medicine, the exposome, and integrative -omics."

The Lecture will be followed by an informal drinks reception at 18:00h.

This is an open event and all are welcome to join.

ABSTRACT

The current enthusiasm for “personalized medicine” is primarily directed at developing genetically targeted treatments, particularly for cancer. While the idea also has potential relevance for prevention, the current planning documents pay only lip service to this possibility. So what is the potential of genetic targeting of high-risk individuals for prevention programs? For this, it is helpful to review the basic ideas laid out by Rose thirty years ago. I begin by discussing the inherently counter-factual nature of prevention research and describe potential applications and limitations of modern causal inference techniques. This approach for population-wide primary prevention is illustrated with examples from air pollution regulation, firearm legislations, tobacco control, and, for genetic targeting, with examples from smoking cessation and colorectal cancer screening. Finally, I discuss opportunities and challenges in exploiting high-dimensional -omics technologies for studying the mediation of environmental influences on disease through the exposome and microbiome.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

See http://profiles.sc-ctsi.org/duncan.thomas

FAQs

Are there ID requirements to enter the event?

External visitors should report to the front security desk, ground floor, Faculty of Medicine Building for a visitor's pass.

What are my transport/parking options getting to the event?

Nearest tube stations are Paddingon and Edgware Road. Please use public transport to reach venue as there is extremely limited parking on meter on South Wharf Road. No on campus car parking.