WSU Common Reading - STD's & Cancer Coverage
Name:
WSU Common Reading - STD's & Cancer Coverage
Date:
February 12, 2013
Website:
http://www.wsu.edu
Event Description:
Sexually transmitted disease and cancer converge for WSU Common Reading talk Feb. 12
Contacts:
Mary Sanchez Lanier, WSU University College, 509-335-2320, sanchez@wsu.edu
Beverly Makhani, WSU University College communications, 509-335-6679, makhani@wsu.edu
PULLMAN, Wash. - Cervical cancer in 1951 killed Henrietta Lacks, whose "immortal” cancer cells are the subject of this year’s common reading book at Washington State University. Sixty years later, PAP smears, viral detection techniques and a vaccine are reducing the number of deaths from cervical cancer.
The human papillomavirus that infected Lacks is a sexually transmitted disease. It has been shown to infect more than 50 percent of students on college campuses. It continues to live in her cells, which are used in all kinds of research worldwide.
What does all of this mean for women’s health care? For men? For WSU students? What does it mean for the researchers who work with Lacks’ HeLa cells? For our understanding of cervical cancer?
These questions and more will be examined by WSU faculty member Mary Sanchez Lanier at the free, public common reading lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, in CUE 203. She is associate dean of the University College and director of the pre-health and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education programs at WSU. She teaches in the School of Molecular Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and conducts research in virology.
Common Reading Tuesdays at WSU feature topics tied to the book used by freshmen in dozens of first-year classes. For more information, visit http://CommonReading.wsu.edu.
Contacts:
Mary Sanchez Lanier, WSU University College, 509-335-2320, sanchez@wsu.edu
Beverly Makhani, WSU University College communications, 509-335-6679, makhani@wsu.edu
PULLMAN, Wash. - Cervical cancer in 1951 killed Henrietta Lacks, whose "immortal” cancer cells are the subject of this year’s common reading book at Washington State University. Sixty years later, PAP smears, viral detection techniques and a vaccine are reducing the number of deaths from cervical cancer.
The human papillomavirus that infected Lacks is a sexually transmitted disease. It has been shown to infect more than 50 percent of students on college campuses. It continues to live in her cells, which are used in all kinds of research worldwide.
What does all of this mean for women’s health care? For men? For WSU students? What does it mean for the researchers who work with Lacks’ HeLa cells? For our understanding of cervical cancer?
These questions and more will be examined by WSU faculty member Mary Sanchez Lanier at the free, public common reading lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, in CUE 203. She is associate dean of the University College and director of the pre-health and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education programs at WSU. She teaches in the School of Molecular Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and conducts research in virology.
Common Reading Tuesdays at WSU feature topics tied to the book used by freshmen in dozens of first-year classes. For more information, visit http://CommonReading.wsu.edu.
