There is abundant research identifying inflammation and specifically chronic inflammation as the primary pathophysiologic process in all chronic diseases. Chronic diseases and chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) are threatening to grow to epidemic proportions, increasing from 45.4 percent in 2000 to 49.2 percent in 2030, according to a projection from the RAND Corporation. (1) These diseases will have an immense impact on our health care system by causing death and reduced quality of life while increasing demand and cost of health care services, according to a 2016 article in Evolution, Medicine & Public Health. (2)
Join us for the GW Biomedical Cross-disciplinary Seminar Series: Connecting Academic Research & Inquiry Across Disciplines. This annual series will explore a new cross-disciplinary topic each year. The goal is to promote networking and collaboration on translational health among researchers, health care providers, and policy makers from different disciplines to shift the paradigm—from seeking a cure to developing a strategy of prevention.
This year, the focus is on "Inflammation in Chronic Disease: Cause, Consequence, or Both?" and will address both the treatment and prevention of CIDs.
Located on the Foggy Bottom campus, the inaugural series started in November 2019 and will run through September 2020. The series is open to the GW community and will cover the following topics:
- Cancer and inflammation
- Genomics and inflammation
- Bioinformatics and inflammation
- Precision medicine and inflammation
- Cardiometabolic disease and inflammation
- Neuropsychiatric disease and inflammation
- Treatment approaches and inflammation
The series was organized by the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ (SMHS) Department of Pharmacology & Physiology and the Office of Integrative Medicine and Health. The seminar series is supported by departmental funding and the generosity of Ellen J. LaBelle, MD `74, RESD '78, associate clinical professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and John Pan, MD '70, RESD '74, clinical professor, Department of Clinical Research and Leadership and founding medical director, Office of Integrative Medicine and Health.
Seminars
| Repetitive Elements and the Immune Response in Cancer Tuesday, November 19, 2019 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Katherine Chiappinelli, PhD, assistant professor |
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Location: Ross Hall, Room 224 |
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| Genomics and Inflammation Tuesday, January 21, 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Tim McCaffrey, PhD, professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Immunology, |
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Location: Ross Hall, Room 227 |
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| Bioinformatics and Inflammation Thursday, February 27, 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Sana Syed, MD, MS, assistant professor of Pediatrics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Gastroenterology, |
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Location: Ross Hall, Room 117 |
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| Cardiometabolic Disease and Inflammation Thursday, March 19, 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Meenakshi S. Madhur, MD, PhD, FACC, assistant professor, Department of Medicine |
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Location: Ross Hall, Room 227 |
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| The Emerging Role of the Immune System in Depression and Other Psychiatric Disorders Thursday, April 2, 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Andrew H. Miller, MD, William P. Timmie Professor, Department of Psychiatry and |
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Location: Ross Hall, Room 117 |
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| Precision Medicine and Inflammation TBD April 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Golam Khandaker MBBS, MPhil, MRCPsych, PhD, Lead, Inflammation and Psychiatry |
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Location: Ross Hall, TBA |
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| Treatment Approaches and Inflammation Thursday, June 25, 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: Vishwa Deep Dixit, DVM, PhD, Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Comparative |
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Location: Ross Hall, TBD |
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| One GW Day Event TBD September 2020 (12 - 1 p.m.) |
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Speaker: TBD |
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Location: Ross Hall, TBD For more information, contact co-organizer Leigh Frame, PhD, MHS, program director, Integrative Medicine Programs, and executive director, Office of Integrative Medicine and Health, at leighframe@gwu.edu or 202-994-0184 or co-organizer Paul Marvar, PhD, associate professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, pmarvar@gwu.edu or 202-994-5584. |
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Source
1. RAND Corporation. Projections of Chronic Illness Prevalence and Cost Inflation. https://www.
2. Straub RH, Schradin C. Chronic Inflammatory systemic diseases: An evolutionary trade-off between acutely beneficial but chronically harmful programs. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. 2016; 2016(1): 37–51.
