National Academy of Medicine member Andrea Baccarelli will discuss “Public Health Epigenetics — New Paths to Precision Medicine” during the seventh annual Richard V. Lee, MD, Lectureship in Global Health on Oct. 28.

His talk takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m. in 150 Farber Hall, South Campus. Registration is required for the lecture. Light refreshments will be served.

Baccarelli is the Leon Hess Professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. He serves as director of the NIH/NIEHS P30 Center for Environmental Health and Justice in Northern Manhattan, one of such 21 centers across the country.

Baccarelli was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for his pioneering work showing that environmental exposures adversely affect the human epigenome and produce lifetime adverse health consequences. He has been included in the Web of Science list of the most influential scientists of the past decade.

Baccarelli’s research investigates molecular mechanisms as pathways linking environmental exposures to human disease. His current projects cover a range of topics, including epigenomics, extracellular vesicles and small non-coding RNAs, mitochondrial DNA and the microbiome. His work has supported international best practices for air pollution control developed by multiple agencies worldwide, and his findings have served as the basis for the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to enforce stricter guidelines for human exposure.

“Dr. Baccarelli’s lecture present an excellent example how our research can help change the policy and tighten emission regulations, as well as impact precision medicine,” says Lina Mu, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health and director of the Office of Global Health Initiatives, School of Public Health and Health Professions.

The Office of Global Health Initiatives presents the Richard V. Lee, MD, Lectureship in Global Health to honor Lee, the late UB faculty member whose passion about international health and tropical medicine took him and graduate students on annual medical expeditions to provide care to populations in some of the most remote areas on the planet.

The lectureship is supported by an endowment from a long-time friend of Lee.