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Institute Leadership Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D.
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Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D. Internationally renowned scientist Dr. Huda Zoghbi will serve as director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute. She is a specialist in Texas Children’s Neurology Service, holds full professorships in the Departments of Pediatrics, Neuroscience and Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine and is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Born in Beirut, Dr. Zoghbi began her medical training at the American University of Beirut. During her first year of instruction, the civil war in Lebanon broke out, and for safety reasons, Dr. Zoghbi's parents convinced her to move to the United States. She transferred to Nashville's Meharry Medical College and graduated in 1979. After moving to Houston, she completed her pediatric residency as well as a residency in pediatric neurology at Baylor College of Medicine. Seeing children with incurable, inherited neurologic diseases piqued her interest in research and led her to take on a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular genetics. She trained with Dr. Arthur L. Beaudet in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor and joined the College’s faculty as an assistant professor in 1988. Dr. Zoghbi's interests range from neurodevelopment to neurodegeneration. Dr. Zoghbi first made headlines when she co-discovered the gene that causes spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, a crippling neurological disease. She and her team then discovered that mutations in MeCP2 cause the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. She and her colleagues also identified the gene Math 1 that regulates the growth of tiny inner ear hair cells, essential elements of hearing and balance in mammals. Recent research advances in the laboratory include deciphering some of the molecular mechanisms that underlie Rett syndrome and SCA1, and the identification of a potential therapy that has subdued SCA1 symptoms in animal models as a first step for preparations of translational studies in humans. Dr. Zoghbi is a member of several professional organizations and serves on the editorial boards of a number of prominent journals. Dr. Zoghbi's honors include the Sidney Carter Award from the American Academy of Neurology; the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award from the American Neurological Association; the E. Mead Johnson Award from Society of Pediatric Research—the nation’s most distinguished pediatric research award; the Bernard Sachs Award from the Child Neurology Society; the Kilby Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Society through Science, Technology, Innovation, Invention, and Education; the IPSEN prize in neuronal plasticity; the Javits Award from the National Institutes of Health; and the Bristol Myers-Squibb Neuroscience Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2000 she was elected to the Institute of Medicine, and in 2004 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize winner and Howard Hughes Medical Institute senior investigator, has called Dr. Zoghbi one of the most revered pediatric neurologists in the country. “She is extraordinary and insightful into the clinical problems of patients. She has superb training in neurology,” he said. “She’s a brilliant investigator and she has made wonderful discoveries in childhood medical disorders. Every major institution in the world that has the resources has tried to recruit Huda Zoghbi.” ____________ For medical inquiries: contact Blue Bird Clinic for Pediatric Neurology at 832-822-5046
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