BIOCHEMISTRY

Update: See the videos of these seminars here. 

Huda Zoghbi of the Baylor College of Medicine will give the 2019 UW–Madison Department of Biochemistry Steenbock Lectures in early March. All members of the campus community are invited to attend these lectures and learn from this pioneer in understanding the molecular basis of human neurological disorders.

Zoghbi is best known for discovering the molecular basis of two neurological disorders — Rett syndrome and spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). She was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2016 for these seminal contributions. More broadly, her investigations explore how key regulators impact neuronal development, neuronal physiology, the brain, and human disease. 

“I am very excited to welcome Huda to UW–Madison, on behalf of the Department of Biochemistry,” says biochemistry professor Judith Kimble, who is the faculty host for the seminar. “Her research epitomizes the very best in science and she is a wonderful speaker. As an M.D., Huda uses fundamental science to understand human disease and been wildly successful. Her most recent work explores the worlds of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s and should be of broad interest.”

Zoghbi holds distinguished appointments as a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. She received her undergraduate degree from the American University of Beirut and her M.D. from Meharry Medical College.

Her first lecture is titled “Genetic and physiological approaches to tackle neurodevelopmental disorders” and will be at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 4. Her second is titled “Insights from rare disorders shed light on common neurodegenerative diseases” and will be at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5. Both seminars will be in the Ebling Symposium Center, Microbial Sciences Building (1550 Linden Drive). Monday’s talk will be followed by a reception in the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemical Sciences Building atrium.

The talks are part of the Biochemistry Colloquium’s Steenbock Lectures, funded by the Harry Steenbock Lectureship in Biochemistry and Life Sciences. Steenbock was a highly regarded UW–Madison biochemistry professor who discovered the irradiation process for producing vitamin D.