Gene-Environment InteractionsRole in the Modulation of Pulmonary and Autoimmune Disease Risks

Launched October 2007 Updated January 2022 18 lectures More in production
Prof. David Christiani
Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, USA
Dr. Patricia Fraser
CBR Institute for Biomedical Research and Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USA
Summary

It is well established that the environment can have a profound effect on gene expression. Classical examples are the influence of temperature on sex in some reptiles and colouring in Siamese cats. An active area of medical research is the respective contributions of genes and the environment in common complex... read morediseases and therapeutic intervention.

Several common pulmonary diseases, such as asthma, COPD and pneumoconiosis, as well as autoimmune diffuse connective tissue diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE; lupus) and systemic sclerosis (scleroderma, progressive systemic sclerosis), are thought to involve both genes influencing susceptibility and, environmental factors. In addition, disease susceptibility and expression for these and other groups of diseases may display significant racial and ethnic variation in human populations.

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