June 25, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Douglas Ruden, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health at UAB, has been invited to speak at the 128th Nobel Symposium next year. Nobel symposia are small gatherings of prominent scientists in select fields of research brought together for the purpose of exchanging knowledge and ideas relevant to specific topics. The topic of next year’s symposium is “Epigenetic Reprogramming in Development and Disease.”

The invitation recognizes Ruden as a “scientist in the forefront of epigenetic research,” the study of changes in gene expression that cannot be explained by changes in DNA structure. “The field of epigenetics has grown enormously in recent years and has been seen to connect previously unrelated disciplines to profoundly promote novel insights into diverse problems, including evolution, development, gene interactions, cloning and the mechanism of common human diseases such as cancers,” according to the letter of invitation extended by the organizing committee of the Nobel Foundation.

Earlier this year, details of an epigenetics study led by Ruden were published in Nature Genetics, a prestigious scientific journal. Findings of the study suggest that environmental stress may play a role in evolution, an idea much debated in the scientific community.

The 2004 Nobel Symposium will be held June 19-22 in Stockholm, Sweden.