The Hamner Institutes For Health Sciences Senior Investigator Named Keynote Speaker For Poe Center Annual Meeting

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The Hamner Institutes For Health Sciences, an independent, nonprofit organization that offers an open, collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach to translational research to enhance the value of the investment in biomedical sciences, has announced that Dr. Sheila Collins, a senior investigator and director of The Hamner’s programs in endocrine and translational biology, has been named the keynote speaker for the Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education’s 2007 Annual Meeting. The event will be held Thursday, Nov. 1 from 7:30-9:30 a.m. at the Poe Center located at 224 Sunnybrook Road in Raleigh, N.C. Dr. Collins will address the epidemic of obesity and diabetes that is occurring – in adults but of great concern also in children, which raises the lifetime risk factors associated with metabolic disease – she will talk about how we got here and what can we do about it.

The Poe Center conducts a number of specialized projects, made possible through the collaboration and support of health education friendly partners, which focus on addressing the health concerns of children. For more information on the 2007 Poe Center Annual Meeting, please visit www.poehealth.org.

Related Links:
www.thehamner.org
www.poehealth.org
www.mmimarketing.com

News Facts:

• Dr. Sheila Collins, director of Translational Biology and the Program in Endocrine Biology as well as a senior investigator at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, has been named the keynote speaker for the Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education’s 2007 Annual Meeting.
• The event will be held Nov. 1 from 7:30-9:30 a.m. at the Poe Center located at 224 Sunnybrook Road in Raleigh, N.C.
• Dr. Collins will address obesity and diabetes.
• The Poe Center conducts a number of specialized projects, made possible through the collaboration and support of health education friendly partners, which focus on addressing the health concerns of children.
• For more information on the 2007 Poe Center Annual Meeting please visit www.poehealth.org.

Quotes:
“It’s an honor to have been asked by the Poe Center to address the health concerns of our youth population. The Poe Center is a marvelous, interactive environment that to me shows how children and adults can help each other by mutually reinforcing positive lifestyle choices.” said Collins. “I hope through this and other avenues we can continue to work towards a healthier future.”

About The Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education:
The Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., specializes in delivering and developing programs for youth to address health concerns like childhood obesity, physical inactivity, unhealthy food choices, tooth decay, drug and alcohol abuse, unintentional injuries, and teen pregnancy. All programs follow The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Healthful Living Curriculum. The Poe Center conducts a number of specialized projects, made possible through the collaboration and support of health education friendly partners. Since opening its doors in November 1991, the Poe Center has provided healthy lifestyle education to communities, schools and organizations, serving over 675,000 participants from 73 counties in North Carolina. For more information, you can visit their Web site at www.poehealth.org.

About Sheila Collins, Ph.D:
Sheila Collins, Ph.D. is director of Translational Biology and the Program in Endocrine Biology as well as a senior investigator at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Dr. Collins’ principal area of research is fat cell metabolism as it relates to diabetes and obesity. She studies how the normal metabolic processes at the cellular and tissue levels work, and how they become disturbed in obese states. Dr. Collins’ research grant history includes longstanding grant support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. Graduating magna cum laude, Dr. Collins earned a B.S. in zoology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1979 and was a University of Massachusetts Commonwealth Scholar. In 1985, she earned a Ph.D. in biology/applied biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

About The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences:
Located on a 56-acre campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences is an independent, nonprofit organization that unites academia, the private sector and government to conduct translational research to improve public health and expedite the development of new medicines. With the ultimate goal of preventing and curing disease, The Hamner offers an open, collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach to strengthen the research investment in biomedical sciences. CIIT, the flagship institute for The Hamner, has been recognized for more than 30 years as a leader in research in environmental risk assessment and health sciences. For more information, please visit www.thehamner.org or call (919) 558-1200.

Keywords:
The Hamner for Health Sciences, Nonprofit, Dr. William F. Greenlee, Dr. Charles E. Hamner, Dr. Sheila Collins, Biomedical, Biotechnology, Research Triangle Park, RTP, Pharmaceutical Drug Development, Translational Biomedical Sciences, Public Health, Obesity, Alice Aycock Poe Center, 2007 Annual Meeting, Physical Inactivity, Children, Department of Public Instruction, Healthful Living Curriculum

Patty Briguglio
MMI Associates, Inc.
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