Loss Lecture Features Genetics Researcher
October 12, 2018
The 2018 Loss Science Lecture Series at St. John Fisher College will feature genetics researcher Dr. Martha Susiarjo. Her lecture, “Genomic Imprinting as a Mechanism for Maternal-Fetal Health Programming,” will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25, in Basil 135 and is free and open to the public.
Susiarjo is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and member of the Environmental Health Sciences Center.
Research in the Susiarjo Lab investigates the underlying mechanisms of the developmental origin of health and disease focusing on how epigenetic mechanisms mediate gene-environment interaction. Her laboratory uses imprinted genes as epigenetic markers to test the effect of environmental exposure on DNA methylation regulation on fetal and placental development. Additionally, she is also interested in elucidating the role of environmental exposure on maternal health during pregnancy and the potential beneficial role of nutritional supplementation. Her research is supported by a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant.
Susiarjo received a doctoral degree in genetics from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.
An annual event at the College, the Robert and Janice Loss Science Lecture Series was established in 2003 to promote the study of the sciences among high school and college students.