by Bill Snyder
Christine Seidman, MD, recipient of the 2019 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, will deliver her Vanderbilt Prize lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, in 208 Light Hall.
Seidman, whose lab has identified the genetic causes of several human heart diseases including cardiomyopathy (potentially fatal enlargement of the heart), is the Thomas W. Smith Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Her lecture is titled “Mutations, Mechanisms and New Medicines for Cardiomyopathies.”
Seidman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and member of the National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences, is the 14th recipient of the Vanderbilt Prize.
Established in 2006 by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the prize honors women scientists with a stellar record of research accomplishments who have made significant contributions to mentoring other women in science.
Prize winners receive an honorarium, present a special seminar as part of the Flexner Discovery Lecture series and mentor a Vanderbilt Prize Scholar, a woman who is pursuing graduate studies in the biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine.
This year’s Vanderbilt Prize Scholar, Megan Rasmussen, is a doctoral candidate in the lab of Vivian Gama, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. Rasmussen will be recognized during next Thursday’s lecture.
A schedule of upcoming Flexner Discovery Lectures can be found at https://ww2.mc.vanderbilt.edu/dls/.
For more information about the Vanderbilt Prize and a list of previous winners, visit the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Office of Research website at https://vumc.org/oor and click on the pull-down menu on the “Research” tab.