022774 Series on human genetics opens at Sarah Lawrence

The Human Genetics Information Service at Sarah Lawrence College opened a 10 lecture in-service course for health teachers yesterday under the sponsorship of the Yonkers Board of Education.

The Sarah Lawrence Genetics Information Service, which is supported by a grant from the Westchester-Rockland Putnam Chapter of the National Foundation - March of Dimes, provides two services for the community: 1) a referral service to assist area physicians and other professionals in locating facilities specializing in problems of human genetics; and 2) arranging educational programs for interested professional and community groups.

It is this second service that is being high-lighted by the lecture series in Yonkers. According to Sally Levine, service director, "Bringing information on human genetics to health teachers in schools is an innovative approach to educating the community in this health field. As a result of this series, we expect some of the teachers will bring the material discussed to their students and others will call upon the Human Genetics Information Service for help in bringing experts in the field into their classrooms. "

COVERING the biological and molecular mechanisms of heredity and practical clinical examples of genetic problems. this series will include lectures

by experts on Genetics,chromosomes, dna, the Chemical Basis of Inheritance, Modes of Inheritance, Genetic Defects, Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Anemia and Thalassemia, Tay-Sachs Disease, Case Histories in Medical Genetics,
and a Team Approach to Medical Genetics.

Among the lecturers will be Ms. Levene, one of the first students at the Sarah Lawrence Center for Continuing Education, who received her Master of Science degree in Human Genetics from the College's Human Genetics Graduate Program. Other graduates of the Program participating in this lecture series are Peggy Blattner, genetic counselor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Muriel Gluckson, associate in genetic counseling  and research at ColumbiaPresbyterian Medical Center's Babies Hospital: and Gay Sachs, assistant to the director of the National Genetics Foundation.

Other speakers include Marilyn Bailin, Ph.D., who is a member of the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and Jessica Davis, M.D., consultant to the Sarah Lawrence College Human Genetics Program and Chief of the Division of Genetics at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, which is a teaching center of Cornell University Medical College.

The Human Genetics Information Service is a direct outgrowth of the Human Genetics Graduate Program at Sarah Lawrence College.