Evening Session

A Conversation with Carolyn Hax: Ask Me About Health, Genetics, and Dealing with Disease

Should I get tested to see if I am at risk for breast cancer? I just discovered that I have the gene that puts me at high risk for Alzheimer's disease. Should I tell my children? Should I have my newborn baby's genome sequenced?

These are just some of the hard questions that people face today or will in the future around personal medical issues and families particularly related to genetic and genomic tests and treatment.

Carolyn Hax, Washington Post Advice Columnist, joins us to answer your questions about health issues, genetics, and dealing with disease. Every week, Carolyn answers her readers' hard questions and helps them tackle their problems. She has spoken publicly about her mother's battle with the devastating illness Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and has worked tremendously to increase biomedical research dollars and raise awareness around this illness, which currently has no cure.

She will be joined by Barbara Biesecker, a genetic counselor and researcher at the National Institutes of Health, National Human Genome Research Institute and who directs The Johns Hopkins University/National Human Genome Research Institute Genetic Counseling Training Program and David Valle, Professor and Director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Moderating tonight’s program is Rebecca Roberts from the Smithsonian Associates, a journalist who has served as a longtime substitute host for various shows on National Public Radio.

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