2008 Woodie Awards
Science Speaker Series Opens With Discussion on Stress and Pregnancy
Jesus Esquivel
Issue date: 3/22/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
An audience largely made of students, staff members and residents packed Valley College's Main Stage Theater last Wednesday to listen to Dr. Chander P. Arora's speech on "Stress and Pregnancy Outcome."
Event organizer and Assistant Professor of Biology Pamela Byrd-Williams introduced Arora as the first of three speakers in the second-annual Spring 2006 Science Seminar Series.
"This is your chance to speak to someone in a science research field in person," Byrd-Williams said. "We're trying to make the science books come alive through our speakers."
Along with being a research scientist for the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Arora is also the director of the Perinatal Research Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and also teaches Biology 3 at Valley.
Arora began her speech with a definition of stress, putting emphasis on how stress is responsible for premature birth, low birth weight and pre-eclampsia.
The subject that provoked the most questions and interest at the end of the seminar was the doctor's discourse on a process she called "the third brain," referring to the production of a corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), in the brain of the mother, the fetus and the placenta.
CRH is a polypeptide hormone attributed to stress response produced in the hypothalamus. To re-establish homeostasis after stress cortisol is then produced to act as an antagonist to the production of CRH.
Arora's discussion showed how the placenta, like the hypothalamus, produces CRH, but when cortisol is present it actually promotes CRH production in the placenta. Stating in a catch-22 of sorts, how pregnancy is stressful itself.
Most of the audience members were Valley students coaxed into the seminar with promises of extra credit by their instructors, however, microbiology student Yunson Kim said, "I'm married, without children, but I know many women through church and I'll definitely inform them about this." Adding, "To us this might be difficult to really understand but it is important to take this and apply it to our lives."
The Spring Science Speaker Series will welcome Dr. Dean Yamaguchi from the Veterans Administration speaking on April 26 about "The Role of Inflamatoy Chemokines in Bones Repair" and Dr. John Klotz from the University of California Riverside will discuss "Toxicity and Animal Bites" on May 24.
Event organizer and Assistant Professor of Biology Pamela Byrd-Williams introduced Arora as the first of three speakers in the second-annual Spring 2006 Science Seminar Series.
"This is your chance to speak to someone in a science research field in person," Byrd-Williams said. "We're trying to make the science books come alive through our speakers."
Along with being a research scientist for the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Arora is also the director of the Perinatal Research Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and also teaches Biology 3 at Valley.
Arora began her speech with a definition of stress, putting emphasis on how stress is responsible for premature birth, low birth weight and pre-eclampsia.
The subject that provoked the most questions and interest at the end of the seminar was the doctor's discourse on a process she called "the third brain," referring to the production of a corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), in the brain of the mother, the fetus and the placenta.
CRH is a polypeptide hormone attributed to stress response produced in the hypothalamus. To re-establish homeostasis after stress cortisol is then produced to act as an antagonist to the production of CRH.
Arora's discussion showed how the placenta, like the hypothalamus, produces CRH, but when cortisol is present it actually promotes CRH production in the placenta. Stating in a catch-22 of sorts, how pregnancy is stressful itself.
Most of the audience members were Valley students coaxed into the seminar with promises of extra credit by their instructors, however, microbiology student Yunson Kim said, "I'm married, without children, but I know many women through church and I'll definitely inform them about this." Adding, "To us this might be difficult to really understand but it is important to take this and apply it to our lives."
The Spring Science Speaker Series will welcome Dr. Dean Yamaguchi from the Veterans Administration speaking on April 26 about "The Role of Inflamatoy Chemokines in Bones Repair" and Dr. John Klotz from the University of California Riverside will discuss "Toxicity and Animal Bites" on May 24.
