There are an estimated 7,000 genetic disorders, most of which are caused by minute changes in our chromosomes. The vast majority of these changes are very small alterations to just 1 of 3 billion letters that make up our DNA. Technologies to “repair” our DNA now exist and are being improved rapidly, moving the bottleneck from our ability to repair DNA to being able to do it in enough of our body’s trillions of cells.
Learn about human genetics, technologies available, recent successes, ethical issues and more through the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program’s Health Education Lecture Series, help in October and November. All members of the Case Western Reserve University community are invited to register for one or all of these lectures.
All of the lectures will be held remotely Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. ET.
The series schedule is composed of the following lectures:
- Oct. 6: “Introduction to Human Genetics: DNA, Our Genome and the Nature of Genetic Disease” by Mitchell Drumm, professor of genetics and genome sciences
- Oct. 13: “New Technologies To Treat Genetic Diseases” by Ronald Conlon, professor of genetics and genome sciences at the School of Medicine
- Oct. 20: “Emerging Technologies To Determine How Well Treatments Work” by Christopher Flask, professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and pediatrics, and Drumm
- Nov. 3: “Successes In Treating Genetic Diseases” by Anna Mitchell, associate director of the Center for Human Genetics at University Hospitals of Cleveland
- Nov. 10: “Ethical And Social Issues In The Treatment Of Genetic Disease” by Marsha Michie, assistant professor of bioethics
- Nov. 17: “The Increasing Importance Of Genetic Counseling” by Rebecca Darrah, associate professor of genetics and genome sciences and co-director of the Genetic Counseling Program