A researcher whose laboratory discovered a crucial link in establishing secondhand smoke as a lung carcinogen in nonsmokers is scheduled to speak at NDSU. 

Stephen S. Hecht, Wallin Professor of Cancer Prevention at the University of Minnesota, is scheduled to present “Tobacco Smoke Carcinogen and Their Biomarkers – Recent Studies” on Friday, March 27, at 3 p.m. in Van Es 101.

The presentation will give an overview of tobacco smoke carcinogens with a focus on the tobacco-specific lung carcinogen nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone. The biomarker known as NNAL, a carcinogenic metabolite of nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone, has been important in studies of secondhand smoke exposure, which have helped to drive current clean air legislation.

Hecht’s lab developed the NNAL biomarker of tobacco carcinogen exposure.

His seminar, which is sponsored by the NDSU Department of Biological Sciences, also will discuss e-cigarette use and its relation to carcinogen and toxicant exposure.

Hecht is an internationally recognized expert on carcinogens in tobacco products and their mechanisms of action. He is the co-discoverer of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, important causative agents for tobacco-induced cancer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Duke University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from MIT.

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