Celebrate All Scientists: Dr. Huda Zoghbi
April is Arab American Heritage Month, and LSC celebrates Lebanese-American geneticist Huda Zoghbi.
Dr. Huda Zoghbi is best known for her work studying the genetic causes of Rett syndrome, an autism-like disorder that primarily affects girls, and a motor-impairment disease called spinocerebellar ataxia type 1. For both of these conditions—and several more—Dr. Zoghbi has succeeded by training her laser focus on a small number of genes to pinpoint how their mutations and interactions result in disease. The goal: To identify “treatment targets” by understanding how the genetic interactions might be disrupted.
Zoghbi was born and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. She was in medical school there in the 1970s when the nation’s civil war intensified, and her surroundings grew too dangerous. After her younger brother was injured by shrapnel from the fighting, she and her siblings were sent to the United States for their own safety. She continued her education at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, a historically Black educational institution.
Zoghbi is now the director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute in Houston, Texas, where her research team has discovered more than 70 new genetic connections to specific diseases. Her work has earned her the high-profile international Breakthrough Prize in 2017 and the Lundbeck Foundation’s prestigious Brain Prize in 2020 among many other honors.
This post was written by Mariam Khella. Mariam is a STEM Educator at LSC. She studied Biology & Public Administration in college. Her favorite exhibit at LSC is Microbes Rule!
