Dr. David Peden, professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology and Toxicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will speak to area leaders and health professionals Aug. 12 on "The Health Effects of Ozone and Asthma." The noon luncheon will take place at the Center for the Environment on the Catawba College campus.
Peden directs the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology. "I had a great rotation in medical school in pediatrics, and was always interested in allergy and immunology fields," Peden says. "While I was an undergraduate, I had a great experience in a lab looking at the effects of certain drugs on immune function — thus my exposure to both immunology and toxicology."
He is principal investigator for an ongoing study, "Human Health Effects of Environmental Pollutants," a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "to better understand the effect of a number of air pollutants on human health. This includes studies with volunteers exposed to a number of low-level pollutants to see how these impact health. We also test the effect of certain medications on response to pollutants and examine if people with asthma or certain genetic factors have increased risk for pollutant-induced disease." Dr. Peden is also principal investigator for "Immunobiology of Acute Environmental Asthma" through the National Institutes of Health and was principal investigator for a study on "Airway Biology of Acute Asthma," also though NIH, which concluded in April.
Peden is chief of Division of Allergy, Immunology, Rheumatology and Infectious Disease and associate chair for research in the Department of Pediatrics. He is program director of the Allergy and Immunology Training Program at UNC Hospitals and deputy director for Child Health Research at the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute, (CTSA) at UNC.
Registration for the speech is required and is available online at the Center's website. Lunch will be provided at 11:30 a.m. at the Center for the Environment on Catawba College campus at no cost to the public. Space is limited and the registration deadline is August 9th.
The Center for the Environment at Catawba College was founded in 1996 to educate the public and the college community about regional environmental challenges and to foster community-based sustainable solutions to those challenges. It seeks to serve as a model for programs throughout the country.
