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Dr. Georgia Dunston, founder of new National Human Genome Center at Howard University, visits Phillips Academy on January 16
January 11, 2008
ANDOVER —Dr. Georgia Dunston has spent most of her life pursuing answers to this single question: Why are people different? On Wednesday, January 16, she will share some of her answers in a free public lecture at 8 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium on the Phillips Academy campus. Her presentation is titled, “The Human Genome Project: The Impact of DNA Variations in Populations.” Dr. Dunston’s appearance is a joint sponsorship by the Academy’s science division and the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CAMD).
“Dr. Dunston has done pioneering work focusing on the disease susceptibility of various populations in the United States,” said Raj Mundra, associate dean of CAMD and instructor in biology. “We look forward to hearing about her research and placing it into the broader context of understanding differences between races.” Mundra said that Dr. Dunston’s work had focused on prostate and breast cancers, type II diabetes, and asthma, which has grown out of her substantial efforts in the much-neglected field of African-American genetics.
On Thursday, January 17, Dr. Dunston also will meet informally over breakfast with the science division and meet with classes to discuss her specific research interests.
Born into a working-class family in the segregated South in 1944, Dr. Dunston rose against improbable odds to earn a Ph.D in human genetics at the University of Michigan in 1972—the first black student in that department. Howard University, one of the world’s premier black colleges, hired her immediately to join its new microbiology research center. She taught, did post-doctoral work at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., and became chairman of the department. Meanwhile, she contributed to the Human Genome Project via separate grants that allowed her to pursue African and African-American genetics. Eventually her work resulted in the founding of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University in 2001, which she continues to head today.
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