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Dr. Uta Francke Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From March of Dimes
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., MARCH 16, 2001 – Uta Francke, M.D., Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, an internationally acclaimed genetics researcher and clinician, today received the 2001 March of Dimes/Colonel Harland Sanders Award for lifetime achievement in the field of genetic sciences.
The award was presented to Dr. Francke on March 2 at the 32nd annual March of Dimes Clinical Genetics Conference held in Miami. Michael Katz, M.D., Vice President for Research of the March of Dimes, presided over the ceremony.
Dr. Francke has spent 30 years conducting studies that have advanced the understanding of many inherited disorders at the molecular level. In 1994, her laboratory discovered a gene for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, an inherited immunodeficiency. In 1999, she received worldwide fame as the co-discoverer of a gene for Rett syndrome, an autism-like disorder that is one of the most common causes of severe mental retardation among girls. Dr. Francke also has made key discoveries in Marfan syndrome and Williams-Beuren syndrome, among others.
Dr. Francke has served as an advisor to and director of numerous professional organizations and societies. She is the current president of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies, and was president of the American Society of Human Genetics in 1999. She has received many honors and awards, including being elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1996, she received the Antoine Marfan Award from the National Marfan Foundation. She has served on the board of advisory editors for the American Journal of Medical Genetics, among other scholarly publications.
Dr. Uta Francke received her medical degree at the University Medical School in Munich, Germany, and served a residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, California. Prior to her appointment as professor of genetics and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator at Stanford in 1989, she held academic appointments at the University of California at San Diego and Yale University School of Medicine.
Established in 1986, the March of Dimes/Colonel Harland Sanders Award is given annually to an individual whose lifetime body of research and education has made a significant contribution to the genetic sciences.
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