Micro-Seminar: Everything you always wanted to know about human papillomavirus induced cancer; but were afraid to ask. PART ONE

Micro-Seminars have two parts. Attendance to both parts is required. Registering for the PART ONE session will automatically enroll you in the PART TWO session on Friday.

Part 1: Thursday, August 22, 2024 from 3:00 – 4:30 pm (PST)
Part 2: Friday, August 23, 2024 from 10:00 – 11:30 am (PST)

In this micro-seminar an overview will be given on day 1 of the diseases that are linked to infection with human papillomaviruses (HPV) ranging from warts through cervical cancer, the 4th ranked cancer of which women will die in the world, to head & neck cancer, one of the fastest rising cancers in the USA, primarily effecting men. The sexual transmission of the virus, the high prevalence in humans, the culturally based resistance to vaccines, as well as aspects of the virus-host interaction will be revealed. A preventive vaccine will be discussed as well as the need to vaccinate both women and men. Two award-winning USC science festival movies will be shown on vaccine mechanisms and education of underrepresented minority populations about the HPV vaccine.

On day 2, an overview of the changing Pap smear recommendations and current treatments of diseases caused by HPV will be given. In addition, new developments in treatment of existing infections and lesions will be revealed. In this micro-seminar graphic pictures will be shown of the devastation HPV can cause in patients. Parts of a Discovery channel documentary about the link of HPV to excessive wart growth in “Treeman meets Treeman” will be shown. In which you follow the presenter of this micro-seminar, Dr. Kast, in his quest to study and help the most extreme cases of HPV induced diseases in the world. HPV is majorly in the news and its social, political and economic implications for developed and under-developed countries will be discussed.

This lecture is recommended for biology, pre-med and education students.

Lead By: Professor Wijbe Kast

Dr. Kast is a professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at USC. He is a world expert on HPV and the diseases it is causing. A documentary about his HPV research has aired worldwide on the Discovery channel and for his research on HPV he was elected as “North America Eminent Scientist of the Year in Immunology” He won the USC graduate student mentoring award twice, making him 1 of only 2 faculty members in the history of USC that got that award more than once. He also recently received the USC Stevens Center for Innovation Commercialization Award for his HPV discoveries that led to licensing agreements with multiple biotech companies that are developing new treatments for HPV induced diseases. He has published ~300 peer-reviewed articles that combined have been quoted ~30,000 times. He teaches cancer education related topics of oncology, biotech & cancer, and cancer prevention to undergraduate, graduate, and medical students as well as to clinical fellows. Of note is that he also teaches at 6 elementary and 9 high schools. With his daughter DJ Kast, another Dr. Kast at USC, he co-wrote a K-12 cancer education curriculum and book, (the first print of 180,000 books has just sold-out) and trains 6 USC stem major undergraduate students per semester to go out into the USC community K-12 schools in order to increase the number of children that receive cancer education and potentially inspire them to choose cancer research or cancer care as a career.

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