Nancy Wexler (born 19 July 1945) FRCP MEASA is an American geneticist and the Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, best known for her involvement in the discovery of the location of the gene that causes Huntington's disease. She earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology but instead chose to work in the field of genetics. The daughter of someone exhibiting Huntington's, she led a research team into a remote part of Venezuela where the disease is prevalent. She visited the villages of Laguneta, San Luis, and Barranquitas. She obtained samples of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) from a large family with a majority of the members having Huntington's disease. The samples her team collected were instrumental in allowing a global collaborative research group to locate the gene that causes the disease. Wexler participated in the successful effort to create a chromosomal test to identify carriers of Huntington's disease.
Early life and education Nancy Wexler was born 19 July 1945, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Pacific Palisades, California and Topeka, Kansas. Wexler's father, Dr. Milton Wexler, was a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist, and her mother was a geneticist who taught biology before her children were born. Both parents taught the girls different areas of science, including the environment, nature, physics, and astronomy. Wexler's grandfather died when her mother, Leonore, was only 15 years old. Leonore looked up Huntington's disease (HD) at the library and read that it was a fatal, inherited disease, and (incorrectly) that it only affecting men. Leonore's three brothers, Seymour, Paul, and Jesse Sabin, all had HD and died within four years of each other. The diagnosis was kept a secret from the rest of the family for many years. The uncles were called "nervous," instead of ill. When Leonore started showing symptoms of HD, her then ex-husband, Milton, kept the diagnosis from her for about a year. She still thought that HD only affected men. When they finally told her she had HD, Nancy said, “Her mother did not protest. It seemed as if Leonore, knowing her family history, had perhaps understood the truth all along.” Wexler thought at an early age she would want to know as much as possible about the disease. Nancy Wexler attended many workshops including her own. She was most impressed by the workshop of George Hunting which was a film showing Huntington disease patients as a part of a community near Lake Maracaibo in comparison to most U.S patients confined to nursing homes. Years later, Nancy became involved in the Venezuela research. From 1963, Wexler studied for her A.B. in psychology at Radcliffe College, graduating in 1967. She then earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974. While studying for her A.B. she was required to take an introductory biology course, which constitutes "[her] only formal education in biology." In 1968 her father started the Hereditary Disease Foundation, which introduced her to scientists such as geneticists and molecular biologists. Along with textbooks and lectures she attends, the scientists "have really been [her] teachers since then." Nancy and her sister, Alice Wexler, both became very involved in the foundation and both became trustees. Nancy is now President of the foundation. The group raises funds for research on HD and related inherited diseases. They also sponsor interdisciplinary workshops for scientists who work on HD and other genetic diseases. Her sister, Alice Wexler is three years older, and has her PhD in History and also contributed to the field of Huntington's. Nancy Wexler and the rest of the Wexler family feature prominently in Alice's book, Mapping Fate -A Memoir of Family, Risk, and Genetic Research that describes how the Wexlers coped with an affected mother while simultaneously trying to spearhead HD research. Alice Wexler also wrote a book on the social history of HD. Education:
1963–1967 A.B. cum laude, Radcliffe College, Social Relations and English 1967–1968 University of West Indies, Jamaica on Fulbright Scholarship 1968 Hampstead Clinic Child Psychoanalytic Training Institute, London, England 1968–1974 Ph.D., University of Michigan, Clinical Psychology Wexler did her thesis on Huntington's disease, focusing on how it felt to be at risk for the disease.
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