Helen H. Hobbs, M.D.

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006, 11 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Searle Center Lecture Hall

Elevated plasma levels of cholesterol are associated with the development of coronary heart disease, a leading cause of death and disability. We have identified genetic variations that lower cholesterol levels and used these variants to examine the relationship between life-long reductions in cholesterol levels and cardiovascular outcomes in high-risk populations. The results of these studies will be reviewed and discussed in the context of how human genetics can inform the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

Helen Hobbs, M.D., is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she is also Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, Chief of Medical Genetics, and Director of the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development. Dr. Hobbs earned her B.A. in human biology in 1974 from Stanford University, and her M.D. in 1979 from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.

 

After medical school, Dr. Hobbs completed an internship in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, then a residency in Dallas, Tex., at Parkland Memorial Hospital. After a year as chief resident in internal medicine at UT Southwestern, Dr. Hobbs trained as a postdoctoral fellow in its Department of Molecular Genetics and completed subspecialty clinical training in Endocrinology. In 1987 she joined the faculty of UT Southwestern as an Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, and she was promoted to Associate Professor in 1991 and to Professor in 1995.

 

Dr. Hobbs is interested in defining the genetic factors responsible for differences in blood cholesterol levels. She has discovered genetic defects causing both very high and low plasma levels of cholesterol, and her characterization of these defective genes has identified new drug targets for the treatment of elevated levels of plasma cholesterol, the major risk factor for atherosclerosis and heart disease.

 

She was elected to membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1991 and the Association of American Physicians in 1997. In 2004 she was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2006 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among her honors, in 2005 she was awarded both the Heinrich Wieland Prize, an international prize for metabolism research, and the American Heart Association Clinical Research Prize.