'Tis the season, and half the nation's lifestyle reporters will be writing about how to keep from gaining weight from that Thanksgiving blowout and all the holiday parties between now and the end of the year not to mention our resolutions to lose weight next year. But how much of that weight gain is genetically determined? Do your genes doom you to a life of watching the scales with mounting dread, while the guy in the office next to yours can eat a pound of Twinkies a day and not gain an ounce?

Find out by attending the Genetics and Public Policy Center's next lecture in our Genetics Perspectives on Policy Seminars (GenePOPS), "Do These Genes Make Me Look Fat?: Genetics, Environment, and Obesity." Speakers will describe the current social and scientific understanding of obesity, and will discuss the relative contributions of genetic, environmental, and cultural factors to obesity. Sally Squires, who writes the Lean Plate Club column in the Washington Post, will talk about media and popular culture portrayals of obesity. Bruce Blumberg of UC- Irvine will explore research that suggests environmental factors may be implicated in obesity. And Boston University's Michael Christman will discuss genetic variants associated with adult and childhood obesity, and ways in which genes and environment both play a hand in common diseases that also are linked to obesity. The event will be open to the public, and is on the record.

Moderator:
Joan Scott, deputy director, Genetics and Public Policy Center

Panel:
Sally Squires, health and diet columnist, The Washington Post

Bruce Blumberg, associate professor, Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California-Irvine

Michael Christman, professor and chair, Department of Genetics and Genomics, Boston University School of Medicine

Location:
2:00 p.m. EST Tuesday, December 5, 2006
National Press Club
529 14th Street,
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Contact: Rick Borchelt
rborche1@jhu.edu
202-663-5978
Genetics & Public Policy Center, Johns Hopkins University
17-Nov-2006