The University of South Alabama will host a seminar, “Empirical Tradition and Scientific Technology: The Use of Dogs to Scent Detect Human Cancer,” at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 2 in the Life Sciences Lecture Hall, Room 3.

This seminar will feature speakers Michael McColloch, research director of the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo, Calif., and Michael Broffman, clinical director.

McColloch and Broffman have integrated the philosophical traditions of Chinese empirical science with evidence-based western science to develop and test the use of dogs to scent-detect cancer at an early stage.

The researchers have studied the use of dogs in detecting cancer because dogs are capable of detecting scents as low as ten parts per quadrillion.

They will discuss how their research on this topic progressed and how they integrated the fields of chemistry, oncology and animal behavior as it developed.

The seminar is sponsored by the Joint Chemistry-Biology-Merck-AAAS Undergraduate Research Program. It is free and open to the public.

For more information contact Dr. Anne Boettcher, assistant professor of biological sciences at USA, 460-7527.