Allied Health Sciences invites you to a lecture presented by Dr. Jeanne McCaffrey on "The Look Ahead Trial"
- February 22 from 12:00 to 1:00 pm
- Room 204, Jay R. Ryan Building, 2006 Hillside Road
Lecture Description:
Precision medicine reflects the goal of tailoring treatment strategies to individuals’ characteristics, including genetics, genomics and other biomarkers. Much of the emphasis to date has been placed on pharmacotherapy but the question arises as to whether genetic or genomic biomarkers can aid in targeting behavioral treatments as well. In this presentation, Dr. McCaffery will review the results of the genetic ancillary studies to Look AHEAD, a large randomized, controlled trial designed to test whether intensive lifestyle intervention, focusing on weight loss, calorie restriction and physical activity promotion, improves health outcomes among overweight or obese persons with type 2 diabetes. She will review whether obesity-associated genetic variants predict magnitude of weight loss during intensive lifestyle intervention and whether behavioral weight loss may mitigate genetic prediction of obesity-related co-morbidities, such as low high density lipoprotein and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. She will further discuss how obesity-associated genetic variants appear to alter patterns of dietary intake, potentially contributing to risk for obesity. The talk will conclude with the implications of the present work for precision medicine and future directions.
Speaker Biography:
Jeanne McCaffery, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University and Senior Research Scientist at The Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center of the Miriam Hospital. She earned her doctorate in Clinical and Health Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her Clinical Psychology Internship at Brown University. Her research interests include the interplay of genetic, behavioral and environmental factors in cardiovascular disease risk and obesity management. She has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on several NIH grants, including genetic ancillary studies to behavioral weight loss trials, and has published over 75 research articles.
*For directions and maps, see http://www.chip.uconn.edu/about/directions-to-chip/. Accessibility: elevator available in building lobby on ground floor.
Please direct any questions or concerns to Cheryl Williams cheryl.williams@uconn.edu or Tricia Leahey at tricia.leahey@uconn.edu.
For more information, contact: Allied Health Sciences at 860-486-0013