Noted antioxidant researcher to preset Harman lecture

Balz Frei, Ph.D., will address biological effects of lipoic acid supplementation on aging and other topics as he presents the 2010 Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D., Lectureship in Biomedical Gerontology on April 9.

Balz Frei, Ph.D.

Dr. Frei is director and distinguished professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

His lecture, sponsored by the UNMC Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, will be held at noon in the Durham Research Center Auditorium and is open to the public.

Dr. Frei conducts research on oxidative stress and inflammation in aging and heart disease. Oxidative stress — the attack of oxygen in the body — is what makes us age and develop chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease.

He directs research at the Linus Pauling Institute, one of the nation’s first two centers of excellence for research on complementary and alternative medicine.

Free lunch Lunch will be provided for the first 300 attendees.

The Harman lecture was established by the University of Nebraska Foundation in honor of Dr. Harman, Emeritus Millard Professor of Medicine at UNMC, who is known internationally as the father of the Free Radical Theory of Aging.

Dr. Frei said Dr. Harman’s theory has had a huge impact on his and others’ research in antioxidants.

“There is no doubt that free radicals and oxidative or ‘redox’ stress play an important role in aging,” Dr. Frei said. “It is amazing to think that Dr. Harman proposed the free radical theory of aging back in 1956 before we even knew that free radicals play an important role in biology and chronic disease.”