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Speaker: Farid Tayari, PhD.
Language: English

Synopsis:

The long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) via injection into deep geologic formations represents a promising technological pathway for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. This lecture will discuss developing a preliminary assessment of the economic feasibility of storing CO2 in depleted unconventional natural gas-bearing shale formations. Using a surrogate reservoir model (SRM) and a flexible environment for techno-economic analysis, site-scale estimates of long-term CO2 sequestration costs in depleted shale gas formations and the likely major cost drivers will be discussed. This approach couples techno-economic analysis with reservoir simulation models to estimate costs associated with transportation, injection, CO2 separation and post-injection monitoring of CO2 storage permanence from large industrial point sources in depleted shale-gas reservoirs. Developed cost model forms the required structure to study the influential factors in decision making and policy analysis of CO2 storage in shale gas formations, such as CH4 and CO2 price.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Tayari is a postdoctoral researcher in Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. After gaining several years of experience in energy industry during 2005-2010 in Iran, he started his Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University in 2011, where he earned his Ph.D. in Energy Management and Policy in 2014. He received his MBA degree in Marketing from University of Tehran and his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. His research interests include quantitative analysis of complex engineering/economic energy systems, techno-economic modeling, economic feasibility assessment and policy analysis. He served as the President of Iranian Student Association at Pennsylvania State University (ISA) in 2013.

Fee (including dinner): $10 Students, $15 Public

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Speaker: Afsaneh Motamed-Khorasani, Ph.D.
Language: English

Synopsis:

Dr. Afsaneh Motamed-Khorasani will present an overview of cancer biology and explain the potential causes of carcinogenesis. She will stress on the multifactorial source of cancer and the fact that prevention is much more effective and practical as compared to its cure. Furthermore, she will explain why in spite of all the buzz about cancer research, the chance to cure cancer with conventional medicine is slim.

The talk agenda includes:

• The status of medical practice
• The facts about clinical trials
• The role of regulatory bodies
• Prescription drugs and how they work in general (the big picture)
• Medical errors
• What is cancer?
• Is it possible to cure cancer?
• How to prevent cancer?
• Biology of belief
• You are in control of your body

About the Speaker:

Dr. Motamed-Khorasani is a Medical/scientific Affairs Specialist and a Senior Scientist with a strong background in biomedical science and clinical trial/research. She has a tenured and diverse range of experience in medical affairs, basic and industrial clinical research and development, clinical trials, Medical and regulatory writing and intellectual property. She has served as an independent consultant, director of medical affairs, senior medical sciences liaison, senior scientist and senior medical analyst at United States Pharmacopia Convention (USP), Amgen, Baxter International, Covidien (eV3), Radient Pharmaceuticals, AMDL Diagnostics, NuVax, Microbix Biosystems, Neometrix Consulting, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, and Vancouver General Hospital. She has more than 18 years of experience and many National and international certificates in GLP, GMP, ICH-GCP and FDA regulatory compliance for clinical trials and is a member of professional associations that include the Endocrine Society, American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), Iranian-American Medical Association (IAMA), Bitech and Pharma Professionals Network (BPPN), American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS), and Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC). She has published and presented more than 50 papers, abstracts and articles in highly regarded scientific journals and high profile conferences and scientific meetings.

Fee (including dinner): $10 Students, $15 Public

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Speaker: Mahin Khatami, PhD
Language: English

Synopsis:

Inflammation is a series of complex immunobiological responses of tissue toward infections and biological, chemical or environmental hazards. A role for inflammation in acute and chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer recognized for centuries. However, ongoing, controversies, misinformation on the role of inflammation in cancer research and therapy, have been tremendously costly for the aging society globally. Claimed cancer ‘targeted’ therapies or ‘personalized’ medicine produced 90% (± 5) failure rates, primarily due to heavy investment on genetic mutations of molecules identified in chaotic environment of cancers and bases for therapy. Dr. Khatami talk will focus on recent definitions of acute inflammation, the balance between two biologically opposing arms of immunity termed ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’. She hypothesized that chronic inflammation or loss of balance in Yin -Yang of immunity is a common denominator of nearly all age-associated chronic diseases or cancer. Results of her ‘accidental’ discoveries, established in 1980’s at the University of Pennsylvania, on models of inflammatory diseases, are suggestive of first evidence for a direct link between inflammation and tumorigenesis. She also published a first report on time course kinetics of inflammation-induced developmental phases of altered immune dynamics leading to tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. Future directions of effective cancer prevention, designs of clinical trials and drug development require systematic understanding of the multistep immune disruption toward carcinogenesis.

About the Speaker:

Professor Khatami received her PhD in Molecular Biology (Univ. PA- 1980). Her postdoctoral trainings were in physiology, proteomics and immunology. As a research faculty of medicine at Dept. Ophthalmology, UPA she quickly earned her supervisory roles on two major projects; cell/molecular biology of diabetic retinopathy/maculopathy, and models of ocular inflammatory diseases. At University of PA, Dr. Khatami became the most productive scientist in United States, as she published 39 articles and over 60 abstracts in the first decade of her career. In 1998, at National Cancer Institute, NIH, as Program Director, she developed molecular concepts for cancer diagnosis and prevention; design of clinical studies and utilization of patients’ biospecimen for clinical trials (PLCO). Her challenging efforts to promote the role of inflammation in cancer research and therapy, initially met with serious opposition. In recent years, number of funded projects on this topic significantly increased globally. In 2005, she published an NCI-Invention, standardizing cancer biomarkers criteria, as foundation of database. Dr. Khatami lectures internationally; was president-VP-GWIS-Omicron; scientific judge; research adviser, consultant to pharma, edited 2 books. She is Associate Editor, Cell Bioch. Biophys.; Academic Decision Editor, BJMMR. Before retiring at professor level, she was Dir. IMAT Program, Asist. Dir. Tech. Prog. Develop., NCI/NIH.

Fee (including dinner): $10 Students, $15 Public

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