Speaker for Diversity in Science series studies frogs and cancer hormones

Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a prize-winning young researcher from the University of California at Berkeley, will be on the UW campus Wednesday, Nov. 18, to meet with students and present a seminar.

Hayes will speak on “Frogs and Cancer: Parallels in Hormonal Control of Color Change and Cell Division in Mammary Cancer,” at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 18, in room 132 of Hitchcock Hall. The presentation is co-sponsored by the Department of Zoology and is open to everyone.

He will also meet with minority students while he is on campus. A forum discussion for undergraduates will be held at 11 a.m. in the Ethnic Cultural Center, 3931 Brooklyn Ave. N.E., with a luncheon for high school students at noon.

Hayes is the fall quarter speaker for the series of minority academic seminars organized by the Student Coalition for Diversity in Science with support from the Dean’s Office in the School of Medicine. The Student Coalition works with Dr. Patrick Stayton, associate professor of bioengineering. The group’s aim is to foster an increased awareness of minority working in academic science fields and encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue careers and hgiher degrees in the sciences.

Hayes is a graduate of Harvard and received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He has received the George Bartholomew Young Investigator Award from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology for his work on several aspects of the hormonal control of development in frogs. He is an assistant professor of integrative biology at Berkeley.

His recent studies in frogs focus on the hormonal compounds that cause reddish color and white spots in sexually mature female Reedfrogs. It appears that the same hormones producing color changes in the frogs cause division in human breast cancer cell lines.

His lab continues to explore these relationships, and is now testing several estrogen-mimic substances and several anti-estrogen compounds. Some of this basic research may end up leading to better ways to predict the long-term effects of hormone and anti-hormone treatments.

For more information on the speaker and seminar series, contact Chimba Mkandawire by e-mail at bluntme@u.washington.edu ¶