Noted Geneticist to Visit UT April 22–26

Carl Langefeld, a statistical geneticist whose research focuses on the mapping of complex genetic traits in humans, will visit The University of Tampa April 22–26. As part of his visit, Langefeld will give a public lecture on Thursday, April 25, at 4:30 p.m. in the Vaughn Center 9th Floor Board Room.

Langefeld is the director of the Center for Public Health Genomics and professor in the Department of Biostatistical Sciences at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

During his presentation, titled “The Impact of Natural Selection on Human Disease: The Trypanolytic APOL1 Kidney Disease Story,” Langefeld will talk about important genetic and genomic approaches used to identify genetic markers associated with disease. He will specifically describe approaches used to identify markers associated with renal diseases in African Americans.

He will also describe how these same markers are associated with resistance to a parasite that causes African sleeping sickness and discuss the importance of this connection between these two health issues.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Langefeld will be on campus to work with three UT professors — Associate Professors of Biology Rebecca Bellone and Stephen Kucera and Assistant Professor of Biology Pad Mahadevan — to develop new experiments for UT’s genetics and molecular genetics courses. He will also give guest lectures in UT’s genetics courses.

This visit is made possible by a UT Board of Fellows grant. For more information, contact Bellone at (813) 257-3551 or rbellone@ut.edu.