Gene Hunter Nancy S. Wexler Receives the First Muller Award for Contributions to the Understanding of Genes and Society
Recognition for Advancing the Understanding of Huntington’s Disease
and Other Devastating Brain Disorders
NEW YORK (April 19, 2016)— Dr. Nancy S. Wexler, President of theHereditary Disease Foundation and Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University, is the first recipient of the Hermann J. Muller Award for Contributions to Our Understanding of Genes and Society. The award, which will be presented on April 25, at Indiana University, Bloomington, recognizes luminary international geneticists whose discoveries have or are making a significant impact on the field of genetics and society.
In 1983, after many years of painstaking research, Dr. Wexler and a collaboration of scientists, organized and supported by the Hereditary Disease Foundation, discovered the genetic marker for Huntington’s disease. Ten years later in 1993, after launching an international collaboration of more than 100 scientists, they found the Huntington’s gene itself. These discoveries played an important part in the development of the Human Genome Project, and also have implications for finding treatments and cures for other brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
In selecting Dr. Wexler for the prestigious Muller Award, the awards committee said, “Dr. Nancy S. Wexler is a perfect example of the high caliber genetic research that has an enormous impact on human lives.”
In addition to receiving the inaugural award, Dr. Wexler will present the first Muller Lecture series. In her talk entitled, “Mendel, Muller, Morgan, Mom and Me,” Dr. Wexler will discuss how she was influenced by gene hunters like Morgan, Muller, Mendel and her own mother, who received her master’s degree in biology from Columbia University. She will recount the highs and lows of her career as a gene hunter starting in 1979, when she first travelled – in search of the HD gene – to a small village in Venezuela that is home to the world’s largest family with Huntington’s disease. This Venezuelan family now comprises more than 18,000 people over 10 generations. She continues her quest today to find treatments and cures for Huntington’s disease and other devastating brain disorders.
Dr. Wexler says, “I am humbled and extremely touched to receive the first Muller Award, and I accept it on behalf of the millions of patients and families around the world impacted by Huntington’s disease and other brain bandits. As gene hunters and scientists, we work for years toward goals that can seem elusive. But, we always have before us the human suffering of those whose lives have been shattered by disease. Bringing them hope and healing is what motivates us every day.”
The annual award and lecture series was established in 2016 to honor Professor Hermann Joseph M. Muller (1890-1967), renowned geneticist, Nobel Laureate, social activist, and an esteemed member of the faculty of Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Muller is best known for his groundbreaking work on the nature of mutations, but he made many other seminal findings using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, a powerful genetic model that remains a major focus of research at Indiana University Bloomington.
The Hereditary Disease Foundation
The Hereditary Disease Foundation is dedicated to finding cures and treatments for Huntington’s disease and other devastating brain disorders that impact millions of people in the United States and worldwide. Established in 1968, the Hereditary Disease Foundation facilitates collaborative and innovative scientific research to further the understanding of Huntington’s disease, a genetic disorder that strikes in early to mid-adulthood, destroying brain cells, and bringing on severe and progressive declines in personality, cognitive ability, and mobility. It was work organized by the Foundation that led to the discovery of the genetic marker for Huntington’s disease in 1983. The Foundation organized and funded a decade-long international collaboration of over 100 scientists who discovered the gene that causes Huntington’s in 1993. This work played an important role in the development of the Human Genome Project. As a disease caused by a mistake in a single gene, Huntington’s disease is an ideal model for other brain disorders. Progress toward treatments and cures for Huntington’s disease can help in finding ways to treat other illnesses with more complex genetics, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS).
Website: www.hdfoundation.org.
Contact: Myrna Manners, 718-986-7255, mmanners@mannersdotson.com