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Boerwinkle Appointed to Kozmetsky Family Chair at IMM
Genetics researcher is first holder of chair established
through $2 million gift
to New Frontiers Campaign
Ronya Kozmetsky and her late husband, George, were two of the first donors to the New Frontiers Campaign for the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).
Eric Boerwinkle, Ph.D.
The Austin couple said they were always looking for ways to help medical science find answers for people suffering from common chronic diseases. “We found one way through the IMM,” Ronya Kozmetsky said.
Their $2 million gift to the IMM has now created the Kozmetsky Family Chair in Human Genetics, which recently was awarded to Eric Boerwinkle, Ph.D., professor and director of the Research Center for Human Genetics at the IMM.
“We are deeply grateful to the Kozmetsky family for enabling us, not only to present Dr. Boerwinkle with such a well-deserved honor, but also to help advance the very vital basic research he is doing at this institution,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Boerwinkle’s main research interests involve inves-tigating the genes and proteins behind cardiovascular disease and its many risk factors.
“I think it is important that the IMM build an integrated program linking genomic variation, proteomic variation, metabolism and physiology, and finally health and disease. This endowed chair will allow us to take our research program in new directions that would otherwise
not be possible,” Boerwinkle said. He and his colleagues recently received a $15.5 million, four-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to examine the genetic, proteomic and environmental factors that contribute to
the formation of vulnerable plaque, fatty buildups in artery
walls that can rupture and cause heart attack or stroke.
The project will combine advanced imaging and genetic analysis
with massive amounts of demographic data collected from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) project, the largest populationbased study of heart disease and stroke in the United States. The original project involved almost 16,000 people over 17 years and measured atherosclerosis and other risk factors including alcohol and tobacco use, high blood pressure, diet, and exercise.
Among his many other research endeavors, Boerwinkle also examines how variation in genes affects the formation and function of “good” cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Under another NHLBI grant, he and his fellow researchers are exploring how specific genes influence HDL cholesterol levels, as well as the protective effect this good cholesterol seems to have on heart health.
Boerwinkle also led the Family Blood Pressure Program, the nation’s most comprehensive genomewide effort to identify hypertension susceptibility genes. The collaborative study, which was published in February 2003, involved researchers at the health science center, the University of Michigan, the Pacific Health Research Institute at Stanford University, and the University of Utah.
Boerwinkle received his doctorate in human genetics at the University of Michigan. He joined the health science center in 1986 and in six years was promoted to professor and director of the Human Genetics Center at the UT School of Public Health at Houston. After another year, he was appointed director of the IMM Research Center for Human Genetics as well.
Recipient of the 2003 President’s Scholar Award for Excellence in Research, he also serves on the faculty at the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston and on the health science center’s Scientific Review Committee and M.D./Ph.D. Advisory Council.
The Kozmetsky Family Chair is one of many gifts to the $200 million New Frontiers Campaign to recruit new scientists and to expand and support research at the IMM. As of October 2004, the campaign, led by Chair Beth Robertson and Co-Chair Ben Love, stands at $183 million in gifts and commitments.
By Amber Buckley, Development