May 6, 2004
Genome Sciences Symposium honors Motulsky
The contributions of Dr. Arno Motulsky, UW professor of medicine and genome sciences and a pioneer in medical genetics, will be honored with the Department of Genome Sciences Symposium 2004.
The day-long program on Wednesday, May 19, begins at 9:45 p.m. in Hogness Auditorium at the Health Sciences Center. Some of the leading experts in genetics from around the country and England will be here to speak at the event. Registration is not required and the symposium is open to everyone.
Scheduled speakers are:
- Dr. Joseph Goldstein, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, “A Century of Research in Atherosclerosis: From the Cholesterol-Fed Rabbit to the Statin-Treated Patient”
- Dr. Ernest Beutler, Scripps Research Institute, “Phenotypic Variability of Single Gene Disorders: G6PD Deficiency, Gaucher Disease and Hemochromatosis”
- Dr. Jeremy Nathans, Johns Hopkins University, “Visual Pigments and the Evolution of Primate Color Vision”
- Dr. Sarah Tishkoff, University of Maryland, “Genetic Diversity in Africa: Implications for Human Origins and Evolution of Malarial Resistance and Color Vision”
- Dr. David Weatherall, University of Oxford, England, “Genomics and Global Health”
- Dr. Richard Weinshilboum, Mayo Clinic Foundation, “Pharmacogenetics: From Catecholamines to Drug Metabolism”
- Dr. Neil Risch, Stanford University, “Genetics of Complex Diseases”
- Dr. Cahrles Epstein, UC San Francisco, “The Future of Human and Medical Genetics in the World of Genomic Medicine”
The theme for the symposium is “The Future of Human and Medical Genetics Bases on the Contributions of Arno G. Motulsky.”
Motulsky earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1947 and was an intern and resident in internal medicine at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. He came to the UW in 1953 and in 1956 founded the Division of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medicine. He remained the division head until 1989.
His research has spanned a variety of areas, including hematologic genetics, population genetics of red blod cell variants, clinical genetics, color vision defects and pharmacogenetics, the study of genetic factors in response to therapeutic drugs and other agents. In recent years, Motulsky has been particularly interested in ecogenetics, the study of hereditary susceptibility to environmental factors.
As long-time director of the UW’s program in medical genetics, Motulsky has trained many well-known American and foreign medical geneticists. He has been widely honored for his work, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
