Functional toxicogenomics: from yeast to people

Speaker: Chris Vulpe, Associate Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology and Project Leader, Superfund Research Program http://superfund.berkeley.edu/, University of California Berkeley http://berkeley.edu/. See http://vulpelab.net for more about Dr. Vulpe's laboratory. Research support by the Superfund Research Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. People vary in their likelihood of developing disease after exposure to toxic chemicals. One reason is because they have different forms of genes. Professor Vulpe describes a novel approach to identify genes that could influence susceptibility to toxic chemicals in people. He uses yeast because they share fundamental cellular biology and metabolic pathways with people. This research identified a gene responsible for controlling cell proliferation resulting from benzene toxicity in yeast. Different forms of this gene could play a role in human susceptibility to benzene.