Tomi Akinyemiju, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, will talk about her work in Nigeria in an upcoming seminar in the Sparkman Global Health Lecture Series.
The lecture, titled “Examining Risk Factors for Increasing Cancer Rates in Developing Countries,” will be held at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Ryals Building, Room 507. The event is free and open to the public; lunch will be served.
Akinyemiju’s main research interests are in the area of cancer health disparities in the United States and in Africa, focusing on racial and socioeconomic disparities in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of cancer. She is interested in examining changing risk factors associated with Westernization, and predictors of young-onset, highly aggressive cancer subtypes in people of African descent. Her research program includes a focus on risk biomarkers, using molecular epidemiology and epigenetics to understand the predictors and prognosis of breast cancer among newly diagnosed patients in Nigeria.