Grand Opening
Symposium
Stay Informed
For more information, contact:Carol A. Corigliano
Business Development Assoc.
Phone: 716.881.8906
Email: cc253@buffalo.edu
Speakers Bios
Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.
Dr. Margaret Pericak-Vance is a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and the
Director for the Center for Human Genetics at Duke University. A native of Buffalo,
New York, she attended Holy Angels Academy and is a graduate of Wells College
in Aurora, NY. She received her PhD in Medical Genetics from Indiana University
Medical Center in Indianapolis, IN. She is a founding fellow of the American
College of Medical Genetics and a board-certified PhD medical geneticist.
Dr. Pericak-Vance has been a leader in deciphering the genetic basis for numerous
genetic disorders since publishing the first comprehensive gene mapping study
for Huntington disease. She has received widespread and significant recognition
for her research, including the “most cited paper” award for her
research on the genetic cause of Alzheimer disease published in 1993 in Science
magazine. Dr. Pericak-Vance’s work also resulted in an award from Popular
Science magazine for “The Best of What’s New in Science and Technology.”
She was named by Newsweek magazine in 1997 as a member of the “Century
Club: 100 People to Watch as We Move to the Next Millennium.” In 2001,
Dr. Pericak-Vance received the prestigious “Louis D” Foundation
Award from the Institut de France for her research in Alzheimer disease. In
2004, she was elected to the Institute of Medicine and was awarded the “Pioneers
of Science” award from the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute
award for her major contributions to the understanding of the molecular basis
of genetic disease.
In 2005, Dr. Pericak-Vance was senior author on a paper published in the journal
Science, “Complement factor H variant increases the risk of age-related
macular degeneration,” which was named a most frequently cited paper by
Essential Science Indicators. She has coauthored more than 360 peer reviewed
research papers and is the co-editor of the seminal text on the genetics of
complex human diseases (Approaches to Gene Mapping in Complex Human Diseases,
Wiley-Liss, 2nd Edition, 2006). She is the recipient of numerous grant awards
from the National Institutes of Health in support of her research.
Her laboratory’s accomplishments include the discovery of genetic defects associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer disease, autism, and age-related macular degeneration (the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly). These major discoveries have led to new insights about the causes of complex common diseases. A more complete description of Dr. Pericak-Vance’s contributions is available at http://www.chg.duke.edu.
