Helen Hobbs | |
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Born | May 5, 1952 |
Nationality | American |
Education | Stanford University (BS) Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (MD) |
Occupation | Professor |
Employer | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
Helen Haskell Hobbs (born May 5, 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts) [1] is an American medical researcher who is professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, who won a 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2018 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine. [2] She and Jonathan C. Cohen found that people with hypomorphic PCSK9 mutations had lower LDL-cholesterol levels and were almost immune to heart disease. This finding led to the development of a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that mimic the effects of the PCSK9 mutations. [3] She and Cohen also identified the first genetic risk factor for fatty liver disease, a burgeoning health problem that can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Their laboratory has shown that mutation in PNPLA3 causes accumulation of PNPLA3 on lipid droplets, which compromises the mobilization of triglycerides from liver cells. She sits on the Board of Directors at Pfizer.
Hobbs graduated from Stanford University and went to medical school at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She completed an internship in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, [4] where she met her future husband, a Texan who trained at UT Southwestern. [5] Together, Hobbs and her husband, Dr. Dennis Stone, moved to Dallas, Texas in 1980, where she completed her medical training at Parkland Memorial Hospital, including a one-year stint as chief resident.
Following the advice of Donald Seldin, [6] the chairman of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, she chose to pursue research after residency. Again, following Dr. Seldin's recommendation, Hobbs took a research post-doctoral position studying lipoproteins at UT Southwestern in the laboratory of Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein, Nobel Prize in Medicine winners in 1985.
In 1987 Hobbs joined the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center where she is the Eugene McDermott Distinguished Chair for the Study of Human Growth and Development. [7] In 1999, she co-founded the Dallas Heart Study with a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. [8] This study takes genetic samples of a representative segment of the population of Dallas County, and correlates them to the subject's health metrics. Through this study, she found that variations in the gene PCSK9 [9] led to lower plasma cholesterol and protection from cardiovascular disease. Another major focus of her career is to understand the basis of fatty liver disease. She and Jonathan Cohen have shown that variations in the DNA sequences of PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 confer susceptibility to fatty liver disease, soon to be the number one indication for liver transplantation.
Year | Award [9] |
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2019 | Anitschkow Prize |
2018 | Foundation Lefoulon-Delalande Grand prix Award |
2018 | Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine |
2017 | Schottenstein Prize |
2016 | Passano Award (with Jonathan C. Cohen ) |
2015 | Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences |
2015 | Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, Rockefeller University |
2012 | International Atherosclerosis Society Prize |
2007 | American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award |
2007 | National Academy of Sciences |
2006 | American Academy of Arts and Sciences |
2005 | Heinrich Wieland Prize |
2004 | National Academy of Medicine |
1997 | Association of American Physicians |
1991 | American Society for Clinical Investigation |
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is one of the five major groups of lipoprotein that transport all fat molecules around the body in extracellular water. These groups, from least dense to most dense, are chylomicrons, very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). LDL delivers fat molecules to cells. LDL has been associated with the progression of atherosclerosis.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient visits per year, UT Southwestern is the largest medical school in the University of Texas System and the State of Texas.
Fatty liver disease (FLD), also known as hepatic steatosis and steatotic liver disease (SLD), is a condition where excess fat builds up in the liver. Often there are no or few symptoms. Occasionally there may be tiredness or pain in the upper right side of the abdomen. Complications may include cirrhosis, liver cancer, and esophageal varices.
Joseph Leonard Goldstein ForMemRS is an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985, along with fellow University of Texas Southwestern researcher, Michael Brown, for their studies regarding cholesterol. They discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that remove cholesterol from the blood and that when LDL receptors are not present in sufficient numbers, individuals develop hypercholesterolemia and become at risk for cholesterol related diseases, notably coronary heart disease. Their studies led to the development of statin drugs.
Ellen S. Vitetta is the director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder characterized by high cholesterol levels, specifically very high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, in the blood and early cardiovascular diseases. The most common mutations diminish the number of functional LDL receptors in the liver or produce abnormal LDL receptors that never go to the cell surface to function properly. Since the underlying body biochemistry is slightly different in individuals with FH, their high cholesterol levels are less responsive to the kinds of cholesterol control methods which are usually more effective in people without FH. Nevertheless, treatment is usually effective.
Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is an enzyme encoded by the PCSK9 gene in humans on chromosome 1. It is the 9th member of the proprotein convertase family of proteins that activate other proteins. Similar genes (orthologs) are found across many species. As with many proteins, PCSK9 is inactive when first synthesized, because a section of peptide chains blocks their activity; proprotein convertases remove that section to activate the enzyme. The PCSK9 gene also contains one of 27 loci associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease.
ATP-binding cassette sub-family G member 5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ABCG5 gene.
Thomas Christian Südhof, ForMemRS, is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. Currently, he is a professor in the school of medicine in the department of molecular and cellular physiology, and by courtesy in neurology, and in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
The University of Tennessee College of Medicine is one of six graduate schools of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) in downtown Memphis. The oldest public medical school in Tennessee, the UT College of Medicine is a LCME-accredited member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and awards graduates of the four-year program Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees. The college's primary focus is to provide practicing health professionals for the state of Tennessee.
Alirocumab, sold under the brand name Praluent, is a medication used as a second-line treatment for high cholesterol for adults whose cholesterol is not controlled by diet and statin treatment. It is a human monoclonal antibody that belongs to a novel class of anti-cholesterol drugs, known as PCSK9 inhibitors, and it was the first such agent to receive FDA approval. The FDA approval was contingent on the completion of further clinical trials to better determine efficacy and safety.
Kern Wildenthal is an American academic and president of the Children's Medical Center Foundation in Dallas, Texas. He also holds honorary appointments as President Emeritus and Professor of Medicine Emeritus at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he served as president from 1986 to 2008.
Center for Vital Longevity (CVL) is a research center of the University of Texas at Dallas. CVL houses scientists studying the cognitive neuroscience of aging and ways to maintain cognitive health for life. Researchers at the CVL also investigate how to slow cognitive aging and methods for the early detection of age-related neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. Other research includes studies investigating the cognitive neuroscience of memory, and other fundamental cognitive processes.
Anoop Misra is an Indian endocrinologist and a former honorary physician to the Prime Minister of India. He is the chairman of Fortis Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol (C-DOC) and heads, National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (NDOC). A former Fellow of the World Health Organization at the Royal Free Hospital, UK, Misra is a recipient of the Dr. B. C. Roy Award, the highest Indian award in the medical category. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for his contributions to Indian medicine.
Roger H. Unger was an American physician known for his studies of the physiology of pancreatic islets. In particular the elucidation of the roles of insulin and glucagon in the regulation of normal blood glucose homeostasis and in the pathogenesis of diabetes, and the establishment of glucagon as a hormone. He was the Touchstone/West Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Donald Wayne Seldin was an American nephrologist. He worked at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and served as chair of the department of medicine for 36 years.
Floyd Rector is a nephrologist and emeritus professor of medicine.
John Satterfield Fordtran is an emeritus professor of gastroenterology and past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Daniel Kalman Podolsky is an American gastroenterologist and member of the National Academy of Medicine. He serves as President of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. and co-chairman of Southwestern Health Resources, a collaboration between UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources that cares for patients across North Texas and includes more than 30 hospitals, 300 clinics, and 2,600 physicians.
Kiran Musunuru is an American cardiologist who is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He researches the genetics and genomics of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Musunuru is a leading expert in the field of gene-editing.