Genetics and Genomics Grand Rounds

TOPIC: "Epigenetic Trajectories to Childhood Asthma: Are We What Our Mothers Made Us?"
PRESENTER: Donata Vercelli, MD
Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Immunobiology, University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
Associate Director, Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, UA Health Sciences
Director, Arizona Center for the Biology of Complex Diseases, UA BIO5 Institute

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018
4-5 p.m.
MRB 102

About the Presenter:
Dr. Vercelli is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Immunobiology at the University of Arizona, the Associate Director of the Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center and the Director of the Arizona Center for the Biology of Complex Diseases (ABCD). Dr. Vercelli received her medical degree from the University of Florence in Italy. After training in Hematology and Immunology/Allergy, she became a Research Fellow in the Division of Immunology at Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in 1986, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in 1991. In 1994 she became the Director of the Molecular Immunoregulation Unit at San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, and in 1999 she joined the Arizona Respiratory Center (now, Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center) at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Vercelli’s research is funded by the NIAID, the NHLBI, and industry and has been recognized by thePharmacia Allergy Research Foundation Award (1989), the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Developing Investigator Award (1991), the Developing Investigator Award of the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America (1989), and the Women Physician in Allergy Award from the AAAAI (2001). Furthermore, she received the 14th Kwasman Memorial Lectureship for Asthma Research (University of Rochester, 2001), the Alec Sehon Distinguished Professorship in Immunology (University of Manitoba, 2002), the Burton Zweiman Lectureship (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, 2003), the Paul Man Lectureship in Pulmonary Diseases (University of Alberta, 2010), the Gilles Filley Lectureship in Epigenetics of Asthma (Aspen Conference on Pulmonary Diseases, 2015) and the Philip Fireman Lectureship (11th International Nemacolin Asthma Conference, 2016). For her work on the asthma-protective effects of farming, in 2017 Dr. Vercelli received a Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award and the Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award, both from the Clinical Research Forum.

Dr. Vercelli has also served as a journal editor, meeting organizer and scientific board member. In 2006, she organized and chaired the Keystone Symposium on “Allergy, Allergic Inflammation and Asthma”. In 2007, she joined the International Scientific Advisory Board of the GABRIEL European Project on Gene-Environment Interactions. In 2010, she became an elected member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and from 2005 to 2012 she was the Associate Editor for Genetics of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. From 2011 to 2014 she was on the international advisory board for the Germany/Finland/China Trilateral Project on Farming Studies.

Contact: Barbara Kahn-Sales, Program Coordinator, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, bkahnsales@email.arizona.edu, 520-626-6655

View, download, post and share the flyer for this event:  GGGR Flier 10.2.18 Vercelli Livestream.pdf