Iona College strengthened its ties with Iona Preparatory School through the creation of a Distinguished Lecture Series featuring nine faculty members. The two schools share more than just a name and city. Both schools have a Christian Brothers heritage.

About eight months ago, Iona College President Dr. Joseph Nyre met with Iona Prep Principal Edward O’Neill to discuss ways in which the two schools could establish stronger bonds. One of the outcomes of this meeting was the two institutions establishing the Distinguished Lecture Series.

“Dr. Nyre and I were looking for a way to celebrate and help bring the two schools together,” O’Neill said. “I would love for [the partnership between the College and the Prep] to take off even more. You’re a tremendous resource for us.”

The program is set up so that once a month, through May, a professor from the college will go to Iona Prep to give a lecture.

The inaugural lecture was held on Sept. 24 where Dr. Teresa D’Aversa, chair of the Biology department, gave a speech titled “Investigating the Effects of Brain Cell Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis.”

“I was honored when I was approached with this opportunity,” D’Aversa said. “It’s wonderful to have this link between the two schools. I think it’s great to expose high school students to what’s going on, to the research that is going on. Iona is doing some fantastic research right now across all departments.”

She described the early signs of multiple sclerosis and the progression of the disease. She also spoke about the biology behind the illness and about her experiments.

A cure for the disease has yet to be found. Globally, there are one million cases of multiple sclerosis. About 200 new cases are discovered each week. Most people are diagnosed in their early 20s.

“It’s a very common autoimmune disease,” D’Aversa said. “The people are diagnosed young. They’re diagnosed in their early 20s; they’re college students. This is when people think ‘Hey, I’m invincible,’ and then they’re diagnosed with this devastating illness.”

The first signs of the disease are apparent visual disturbances. For example, a person might experience double-vision, which occurs when someone perceives two appearances of a single object.

The next indication of multiple sclerosis is a decrease in the ability to walk smoothly, which can be seen with an unsteady gait.

There are four subtypes of multiple sclerosis; 80 percent of people develop the relapsing-remitting subtype at first. This version of the illness makes people go through cycles of stability. The overwhelming majority of these patients (90 percent) progress to the secondary progressive subtype over time.

D’Aversa explained that there are several factors that may lead one to developing the disease. Some of the potential causes include smoking, taking in other dangerous solvents, genetics and place of living.

She stated that the United States has a relatively high rate of multiple sclerosis.

In her research, D’Aversa tested the effects of interferon beta on cells that have been affected with these secretions. She found that the interferon beta is effective at limiting the damage that cells experience.

She also addressed multiple sclerosis’ relation to other neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). She said that although all of these diseases are autoimmune, there are several differences among them. Different functions are targeted by the different diseases.

The next talk in the lecture series is Oct. 22 and will feature Dr. Lubomir Ivanov, from the Computer Science department, whose talk is titled “Parallel Computing.”