Helen H. Hobbs, MD

Description

Helen Hobbs is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in Dallas, Texas. After attending Stanford University and Case Western Reserve Medical School, she trained in internal medicine and endocrinology at Columbia-Presbyterian and UTSW. She joined the UTSW faculty in 1987 where she is Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics and Director of the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development. Together with Jonathan Cohen, she has used human genetics to identify sequence variations in genes with large effects on plasma levels of LDL-cholesterol (ABCG5/ABCG8, LDLRAP, PCSK9, NPC1L1, ANGPTL3) and triglyceride (ANGPTL3,-4,-8). More recently, she discovered the two most impactful genetic risk factors for fatty liver disease (PNPLA3, TM6SF2). Gene identification is the starting point for studies that have elucidated pathways and processes altered by the defective genes she has identified.

Dr. Hobbs is a member of the ASCI (profile here), the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences. She is recipient of The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016) and the Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine (2018).

This event was moderated by Anna Greka, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Greka serves as the current ASCI Vice President, Co-Chair of the ASCI Physician-Scientist Development Committee, and is the 2018 co-recipient of the Seldin~Smith Award for Pioneering Research.