Shafaqna – Huda Zoghbi, the scientists who identified the Rett syndrome’s gene , intended to study literature , but her mother persuaded her to study biology instead
According to Wikipedia, Huda Y. Zoghbi (born 1955) is a Lebanese-born physician and medical researcher. She is a professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Molecular and Human Genetics, and Neurology and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, the director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her work has elucidated mechanisms of Rett syndrome and spinocerebellar ataxias.
Early life and education
Zoghbi was born Huda El-Hibri in Beirut, Lebanon in 1955. She developed a love of Shakespeare and other English-language poets in high school and intended to study literature at university, but her mother persuaded her to study biology instead. Zoghbi was admitted as a biological sciences major at the American University of Beirut in 1973 and entered the university’s medical school in 1975.The Lebanese Civil War began during her first year of medical school. Out of concern for their safety, Zoghbi and her brothers were sent by the family to live with a sister in Texas. When she was unable to return to Lebanon, Zoghbi obtained mid-term admission to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where she earned her M.D. in 1979.[4] Zoghbi completed her first residency at Baylor College of Medicine in pediatrics in 1982 and a joint residency and fellowship in neurology and pediatric neurology in 1985.
Research
In 1983 Zoghbi was introduced to Rett syndrome by Bengt Hagberg’s account in Annals of Neurology. Though Rett syndrome was largely unrecognized by neurologists at the time, this account allowed Zoghbi to diagnose a five-year-old she treated at Texas Children’s Hospital. A week later Zoghbi saw another patient with the same set of symptoms. When she investigated medical records, she found more cases of Rett syndrome that had been misdiagnosed. After she completed her second residency, her desire to understand the cause of Rett syndrome and other neurological disorders led her to a postdoctoral research fellowship with molecular geneticist Arthur Beaudet. Zoghbi founded her own lab at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988.
Source: Wikipedia 16/02/205
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