14th Annual Sitlington Lecture in Toxicology to Focus on Autism

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The 14th Annual Sitlington Lecture in Toxicology at OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences will feature Pamela J. Lein, Ph.D., a molecular biosciences professor from the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.  Lein will present “Environmental Risk Factors for Autism: The Case for PCBs” on Friday, March 7, at 2 p.m. in McElroy Hall Auditorium.  The presentation is open to the public at no charge.  McElroy Hall is located at the corner of McFarland and West Farm Road on the OSU Stillwater campus.

The lecture is sponsored by Carey Pope, Ph.D., Regents Professor and Sitlington Chair in Toxicology in the veterinary center’s Department of Physiological Sciences. 

“Dr. Lein is an internationally recognized expert on developmental neurotoxicology,” says Pope.  “Her work on PCBs suggests these ubiquitous environmental contaminants may play a role in developmental disorders including the autism spectrum.” 

Lein earned a BS degree in Biology from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and a MS degree in Environmental Health from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn.  She received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., and completed postdoctoral training in Molecular Immunology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute also in Buffalo.  She is currently professor and director of the CounterACT Center of Excellence at UC-Davis.

For those unable to attend the lecture in person, OSU will be live streaming the event at OStateTV.