David Eaton
The Graduate School and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences,
University of Washington
Dean and Vice Provost
David Eaton
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Time: 5:30 PM
Place: Hager Auditorium, Museum of the Rockies
Title: Why me, Doc? What Scientists Know—and Don’t Know—About the Causes of Cancer
Summary:
Nearly everyone knows someone—a family member, close friend, neighbor—that has been given the bad news of a cancer diagnosis. Among the many questions that arise are, "Is it my genes? Was it something I ate? Or something in my workplace? Was there something I could have done to avoid it?" Cancer is a term we use to describe a disease process that exists in hundreds, if not thousands, of different forms, each with its own genetic and environmental risk factors. This talk will discuss cancer etiology from the "30,000 ft perspective," with a few examples of recent discoveries about both genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the global cancer disease burden.
About the speaker:
Dr. Eaton received his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) in 1978. He joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 1979, and is Professor and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Professor of Public Health Genetics, adjunct Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Affiliate Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is currently the Dean and Vice Provost of the Graduate School, University of Washington. Prior to assuming this position, he served for 7 years as Associate Vice Provost for Research, and prior to that, as Associate Dean for Research in the School of Public Health. Nationally, he has served as Secretary, and later as President, of the Society of Toxicology, and serves on a numerous scientific advisory boards for other NIH centers and program grants. He served on the NAS/NRC Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology from 1996-1999, and on numerous NAS/NRC/IOM Committees related to controversial public health issues in toxicology. Dr. Eaton maintains his own active research and teaching program focused in the area of the molecular basis for environmental causes of cancer, with an emphasis on how chemical carcinogens are metabolized in the liver. He has published over 150 scientific articles and book chapters in the field of toxicology and risk assessment, and is an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences and the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2011.
- Watch the lecture on YouTube