Skip to main content
Close
Vilcek Foundation
  • About
    • About

      The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences.

    • Our Mission
    • Board & Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prizes

      The Vilcek Foundation Prizes are awarded to foreign-born individuals for extraordinary achievement in the arts and sciences.

    • About the Prizes

      Learn more about the Vilcek Foundation Prizes and the prizewinners.

    • Vilcek Prizes

      Awarded to immigrants with a legacy of major accomplishments.

    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

      Awarded to young immigrant professionals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement early in their careers.

    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence

      Awarded to immigrants who have had a significant impact on American society, or to individuals who are dedicated champions of immigrant causes.

    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
Sign Up Search
Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Huda Zoghbi

Huda Zoghbi

2009 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science

Location

Houston, TX

Title

Professor of pediatrics, neurology, neuroscience, and molecular and human genetics, Baylor College of Medicine;

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Area(s) of Research

Neuroscience; Rett syndrome

Education

Baylor College of Medicine (residency, fellowship);
Meharry Medical College (MD)

Country of Birth

Lebanon

Tags
Baylor College genetics Howard Hughes Medical Institute lebanon neurodegenerative neurodegenerative diseases neurology neuroscience pediatrics
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
A photo of Huda Zoghbi in a neutral coat.
Photo by Agapito Sanchez

Huda Zoghbi’s first semester of medical school at the American University in Beirut was shattered by civil war, attending class in “safe” rooms, with double-thick walls. Perseverance would become instrumental to the achievements of this internationally renowned child neurologist and molecular geneticist — notably, the discovery of the gene responsible for Rett syndrome.

With an escalating war in Lebanon, Dr. Zoghbi completed her medical studies in the States, earning an MD from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1979. She joined the pediatric residency program at the Baylor College of Medicine and, during a rotation in neurology, became “fascinated by the brain.”

Intending to become a pediatric clinician, an encounter with a 5-year-old girl at Texas Children’s Hospital and an article on Rett syndrome in the Annals of Neurology redirected Dr. Zoghbi’s professional path. She learned that girls almost exclusively are afflicted by this rare neurodevelopmental disorder. They typically develop normally for six to eighteen months and then begin to lose the ability to speak, walk, and use their hands; many display repetitive hand-wringing; their head growth slows and they begin to exhibit autistic-like behavior. That information enabled Dr. Zoghbi to diagnose Rett syndrome in her patient. One week after that, she recognized the syndrome again, in an 11-year-old girl. A search of medical records at the hospital turned up five more patients.

In 1988, she set up her own laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine. Sixteen years after first learning of the disease, in 1999 she and her collaborators identified mutations in the MECP2 gene as the cause of Rett syndrome.Dr. Zoghbi says her ultimate professional goal is “to actually make a patient better” through treatments resulting from her discoveries in research.

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Kilby Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Society through Science,Technology, Innovation, Invention, and Education (1995)
  • E. Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research (1996)
  • Sidney Carter Award (1998)
  • Member, Institute of Medicine (2000)
  • Member, National Academy of Sciences (2004)
  • Trustee, American University of Beirut
Tags
Baylor College genetics Howard Hughes Medical Institute lebanon neurodegenerative neurodegenerative diseases neurology neuroscience pediatrics

Jury Members

2009 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science

Claudio Basilico

Professor and Chairman, Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine

Bruce Cronstein

Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine

Rudolf Jaenisch

Member, Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Joan Massagué

Chairman of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Jan Vilcek

Professor of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Related Prize Recipients

Lily and Yuh-Nung Jan

Lily and Yuh-Nung Jan receive the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for identifying genes and principles underlying the development and wiring of the nervous system, and for uncovering the genetic underpinnings of the mechanism by which cells shuttle ions, a crucial process for a variety of body functions.
Portrait of Lily and Yuh-Nung Jan

Richard Flavell

Richard Flavell receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for his paradigm-shifting efforts to use an approach called reverse genetics to probe the molecular basis of immunity, yielding rich insights into innate and adaptive immunity, autoimmunity, and immune system-microbiome interactions.
Richard Flavell

Carlos Bustamante

Carlos Bustamante receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for his pioneering single-molecule studies, which enabled the isolation, visualization, and manipulation of individual molecules within cells and revealed insights into the structure and dynamics of key players in cellular processes such as gene expression.
Carlos Bustamante

You may also be interested in

October 18, 2022

Vilcek Foundation honors immigrant scientists with $250,000 in prizes

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Edward Chouchani, Biyu J. He, and Shixin Liu receive the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science.
The 2023 Vilcek Prizewinners in biomedical science from left to right: Edward Chouchani, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Biyu J. He, & Shixin Liu.
September 27, 2021

Immigrant scientists announced among HHMI Investigators

Sun Hur, Martin Jonikas, and Mikhail Shapiro are recognized among the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s 2021 Investigators Cohort.
A Jonikas lab member adjusting a plate on a microscope.
August 6, 2020

New research offers minimally invasive approach to deep brain stimulation

Creative Promise Prizewinner Viviana Gradinaru receives the Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation, for her innovative Parkinson’s Research
Viviana Gradinaru and lab members conduct an experiment in her lab.

Join our mailing list

Sign Up
Vilcek Foundation
21 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021

Phone: 212.472.2500

Email: info@vilcek.org

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board and Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise
    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence
    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
  • Careers
Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Vimeo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
© 2023   Vilcek Foundation