Heart disease expert to speak at KU

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Office of the Provost will host Dr. Kent Thornburg, a medical scientist internationally known for his work on the roots of adult-onset heart disease, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, at The Commons at Spooner Hall.

Thornburg’s lecture, “Discovering the Developmental Roots of Heart Disease,” is part of a series devoted to enhancing the strategic initiative themes that are a part of Bold Aspirations, the strategic plan for KU. The lecture is connected to KU’s second strategic theme, Promoting Well-Being, Finding Cures.

Thornburg is director of the Heart Research Center and professor of cardiovascular medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. He plays a leadership role in the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, which addresses public health issues such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes through interdisciplinary developmental approaches on the earliest stages of human development. He studies how factors such as genetics, prenatal nutrition and other environmental influences can establish the risk for later heart disease and childhood obesity.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Office of the Provost at (785) 864-4904.