Southwestern Medical Foundation's Ida M. Green
Distinguished Visiting Professorship,
Honoring Women in Science and Medicine
Each year the Women in Science and Medicine Advisory Committee (WISMAC) selects and hosts an outstanding female scientist/physician to visit UT Southwestern for a two-day professorship. The Ida M. Green Distinguished Visiting Professorship, Honoring Women in Science and Medicine was established by the Southwestern Medical Foundation in honor of the late wife of Texas Instruments founder Cecil H. Green, who died in 2003. Mrs. Green, who died in 1986, championed the cause of opening new career paths for women in science and provided a major bequest to Southwestern Medical Foundation. The Visiting Professorship promotes the accomplishments of women in science and medicine and provides inspiration to UT Southwestern's junior faculty and trainees. Our visiting professor meets with individuals and with diverse groups on campus and presents a University Lecture.
2007-2008 Southwestern Medical Foundation's Ida M. Green Distinguished Visiting Professorship
Christine E. Seidman, M.D.
University Lecture February 6, 2008: "Human Cardiomyopathies: From Genes to Mechanisms"
Christine Seidman is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. In her research, Dr. Seidman effectively integrates clinical medicine with molecular and genetic technologies to unravel the relationship between genes and human disease. Her work on congenital heart disease and familial cardiomyopathies has defined multiple pathways involved in heart development and identified gene mutations that lead to pathologic remodeling of the human heart. Her lab recently discovered that mutations in genes that regulate myocardial glycogen metabolism can lead to a previously unexplained form of cardiac hypertrophy. These findings not only provide a novel mechanism for the pathology of cardiac hypertrophy, but are also valuable in developing clinical strategies for patients with glycogen storage cardiomyopathy. Dr. Seidman’s work on cardiovascular disease as well as her research on hearing loss and lymphedema demonstrates the successful translation of basic research discoveries into improved disease treatment and better patient care.
Dr. Seidman received her M.D. from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1978. She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at John Hopkins Hospital and received subspecialty training in cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1987, she joined the staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Seidman is currently an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and was recently elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Seidman is a recipient of the 2002 Bristol-Myers Squibb Award, which she shared with her husband, Jonathan Seidman, Ph.D., with whom she has actively collaborated on the genetic bases of cardiac disorders for more than 20 years. [edited January 2008]
2008-2009 Southwestern Medical Foundation's Ida M. Green Distinguished Visiting Professorship
Carol Greider, Ph.D.
University Lecture February 4, 2009
Carol Greider is the Daniel Nathans Professor and director of the department of molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences. Her pre-eminent discovery of the enzyme telomerase and subsequent studies on telomere function in the cell have transformed the fields of aging and cancer research. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider first described telomerase in Tetrahymena, a pond-dwelling protozoan containing thousands of chromosomes. She continued on to extensively characterize the functional regions of Tetrahymena telomerase. With colleagues, she established a link between telomere length and replicative capacity of cells, and also provided important insight into the role of aberrant telomerase activity in cancer cells. More recently, Dr. Greider has been characterizing chromosome rearrangments in yeast to explore the genetic requirements for chromosome stability. Her laboratory has also generated telomerase null mice to dissect the role of telomere length in stem cell viability. Dr. Greider's research also has taken a clinical bent in studies of dyskeratosis congenita, a rare, inherited disorder related to stem cell failure.
Dr. Greider earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She began her postdoctoral studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., where she later became an associate investigator. She joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1997. Dr. Greider is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of numerous awards including the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, which she shared with her former mentor, Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and with Jack Szostak, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School. [Posted December 28, 2007]
