The goal of the NextGen Precision Health & Ellis Fischel Cancer Center Science Seminar is to highlight transdisciplinary precision research taking place in the cancer field, provide opportunities for collaboration among researchers to build their own research efforts and promote clinical/researcher activity across the University of Missouri System and our partners.

For questions about this event, please reach out to Veronica Lemme.

"Epigenetic Age and Chronic Leukocytic Leukemia Relapse"

Speakers: Rene Cortese, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Missouri

Drew Nannini, DO, PhD, Internal Medicine Resident, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri

Date: April 20, 2023, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Location: Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building, Atkins Family Seminar Room

In-person with virtual option

Register Here

Description

During this talk, Rene Cortese, PhD, and Drew Nannini DO, PhD, will discuss biological aging as estimated from DNA methylation (i.e., epigenetic age) and its relationship with chronological age. Additionally, findings from their research investigating the association between “epigenetic clocks” and time to chronic lymphocytic leukemia relapse will be presented.

About the Speakers

Rene Cortese, PhD, studies epigenetics of complex diseases to detect and understand how complex diseases develop, progress, are inherited and can be treated. His research interests are: i) multiomics studies on phenotype modulation in children’s and women’s health, ii) epigenetics mechanisms involved in the developmental origin of diseases, iii) epigenomics of sleep disorders and iv) epigenomics profiling in circulating DNA in bodily fluids. Dr. Cortese received his master’s in biological sciences from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and earned his PhD at the University of Bonn in Germany. He did his post-doctoral fellowship in epigenetics at the Krembil Family Epigenetics Laboratory CAMH, in Toronto. He has over 25 publications and three patents and has worked in the field of genetics/epigenetics for more than 20 years, holding positions in academy and industry.

Drew Nannini, DO, PhD is an internal medicine resident in the Department of Medicine at the University of Missouri at Columbia. His research interests involve investigating the intersection of environmental, lifestyle and multiomics (e.g., genetic, epigenetic, microbiome) on quantitative traits and complex diseases, as well as factors associated with healthy aging and longevity. Dr. Nannini received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his medical degree from Kansas City University. He has published numerous articles on epigenetic aging, genome-wide association studies and genetic ancestry.