UCLA researcher to talk ‘Eating History’

Hannah Landecker, director of the Institute for Society and Genetics at UCLA, will present “Eating History: Reading Epigenetic Science for a Metabolic Ethics” at 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 6, in the Cone University Center, Room 210.

Landecker also is a professor of sociology, and her research interests are the social and historical study of biotechnology and life science, from 1900 to the present; the intersections of biology and technology, with a particular focus on cells; and the in vitro conditions of life in research settings. She is the author of “Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies.”

In her Nov. 6 talk, Landecker will explore connections between microbiome science (genetic material of all microbes that live in or on the human body) and epigenetics (the changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression).

According to Landecker, mapping the relationship between eating, microbes and epigenetic gene regulation is of considerable practical interest, bearing as it does on frameworks for understanding human health and well-being, particularly concerning metabolic disorders arising from industrialized food and sleep patterns.

The UNC Charlotte Center for Professional and Applied Ethics is sponsoring this free, public talk.