Molecular geneticist Helen Haskell Hobbs, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics, and Director of McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Texas, Southwestern, will deliver the 107th annual Howard Taylor Ricketts lecture, "Nature, Nurture, and Fatty Liver Disease," on Monday, May 2, 2022.
Hobbs, who is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, researches disorders of lipid trafficking and metabolism. Her lab is interested in how dysregulation of lipid metabolism contributes to human diseases. Hobbs and her team use human genetics to identify genetic differences causing disorders of lipid metabolism, then perform functional studies to define the underlying mechanisms. Their current focus is elucidating the functions of three proteins involved in lipid trafficking and understanding the molecular basis of genetic variations in proteins conferring susceptibility and resistance to fatty liver disease.
The lecture series is named after Dr. Howard T. Ricketts, an American pathologist who discovered the class of disease-carrying microorganisms now known as Rickettsia. These microorganisms have characteristics of both viruses and bacteria, and are responsible for lethal human diseases such as typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Though he died young, he made important contributions to the study of vaccines and immunity while he was an associate professor of pathology at the University of Chicago.
- When: Monday, May 2nd, 2022, 4:00 p.m.
- Where: The Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center, Room 109 924 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL
- Persons needing assistance should call (773) 702-5777
