Chaired by Beverly A. Mock, NCI
Main Auditorium, Natcher
Conference Center
Many common diseases including obesity, arthritis, lupus, cancer, susceptibility
to infectious agents, schizophrenia, and anxiety and mood disorders, result
from a complex interplay of host genetic factors with environmental exposures.
Single gene disorders are often associated with all or none effects. In contrast,
diseases thought to be multigenic are likely to result from an accumulation
of efficiency allele defects. Various allelomorphic forms of genes may function
with different degrees of efficiency in the context of both the host microenvironment,
as determined overall by a balance of nutrition, fitness and rest, as well as
outside environmental exposures to a variety of agents.
The ability to uncover the single components associated
with disease development and establish relationships among
them has consumed biologists for decades. The temptation
to linearize these processes is quite evident in the number
of diagrams that outline any particular cancer or disease
process as a linear progression proceeding from step 1
to 2, and beyond. Many diseases result from an accumulation
of genetic events, but the precise order of events may
not always be conserved.
This symposium will bring together a diverse array of investigators
from different institutes to provide a summary of the strategies
that NIH scientists have employed to uncover individual genes
and elucidate how they contribute to multi-gene disease progression.
Program:
Introduction to Complex Disease Traits
Beverly Mock, NCI
The Role of Modifier Genes In Susceptibility to Cancers
Associated with Neurofibromatosis
Karlyne Reilly, NCI
The Role of Sipa1 in Metastasis
Kent Hunter, NCI
Genetic Interactions Underlying Neural Crest Development
and Disease
William Pavan, NHGRI
The Complexities of Genetic Association Studies in Cancer
Stephen Chanock, NCI
Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Complex Genetic Disease
Elaine Remmers, NIAMS
Hereditary Deafness Is Simply Complex
Thomas Friedman, NIDCD |
