Transcript Speaker: Helen - Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine

Max Delbrück Center for Molecular
Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
Max Delbrück Lecture
Max Delbrück Lecture
Date:
July 11th, 2008
Speaker:
Helen H. Hobbs
HHMI, UT Southwestern
Medical Center
Dallas, TX, USA
Title:
Rerouting Receptors to
Reduce Heart Disease
Host:
Thomas Willnow
Supported by
•Max Delbrück Center for Molecular
Medicine (MDC), Berlin-Buch
•Circle of Friends and Alumni of the MDC
Rerouting Receptors to Reduce Heart Disease
Helen Hobbs uses human genetics to elucidate key pathways in cholesterol and lipoprotein
metabolism. Her major contributions include the discovery of the molecular basis of
sitosterolemia (ABCG5 or ABCG8), of autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia (ARH),
and of dominant hypocholesterolemia (PCSK9). She has documented that sequence
variations that are individually rare and of major effect collectively contribute significantly to
variability in a variety of metabolic traits in humans. Most recently, she has provided genetic
data that confirms the primacy of LDL levels in coronary atherosclerotic risk in humans and
suggests new approaches to the prevention of heart disease.
Speaker’s background
Helen Hobbs started out as a physician but turned to scientific research as the major focus
of her career. She went to medical schoold at Case Western Reserve University and began
her medical career with a internship at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital and residency in
Internal Medicine AT Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. She completed a
postdoctoral fellowship in molecular genetics and endocrinology. Hobbs is currently a
professor of internal medicine and molecular genetics and Director of the Eugene
McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center. She has been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute since 2002 and is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy
of Sciences since 2007.