Veronica van Heyningen

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Veronica van Heyningen
CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci FRSB
Born
Veronica Daniel

(1946-11-12) 12 November 1946 (age 77)[6]
Békéscsaba, Hungary
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom (naturalised)
Alma mater
Spouse
Simon van Heyningen
​
(m. 1968)​
[6]
AwardsEMBO Member (2002)[1]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisMitochondrial and other enzymes in somatic cell hybrids (1973)
Doctoral advisorWalter Bodmer[7]
Websiteiris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=VVANH41

Veronica van Heyningen CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci FRSB (née Daniel; born 12 November 1946,[6] Békéscsaba, Hungary[8]) is an English geneticist who specialises in the etiology of anophthalmia as an honorary professor at University College London (UCL).[9][10][7][5] She previously served as head of medical genetics at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh and the president of The Genetics Society.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] In 2014 she became president of the Galton Institute. As of 2019 she chairs the diversity committee of the Royal Society, previously chaired by Uta Frith.[18]

Early life[edit]

Veronica Daniel was born in 1946 in Békéscsaba, Hungary. Her parents were survivors of The Holocaust who had been interned in Nazi concentration camps. The majority of their families were murdered in Auschwitz. Her father was a textile engineer who had studied in Germany before World War II, enabling him to work after the war at a textile research institute in Budapest.[8]

Sponsored by an uncle in Britain, the family was able to get an immigrant passport, arriving in Worthing, Sussex, on January 30, 1958. They soon moved to Loughborough, where her father had found a position as a technical director. Veronica van Heyningen has commented that these experiences made her and her sister "very aware that education is life's major portable asset".[8] In 1963, as soon as it was legally possible to do so, her family applied for British citizenship.[8]

Education[edit]

Veronica studied the Natural Sciences Tripos at the University of Cambridge, and was an undergraduate at Girton College, Cambridge where she specialised in genetics from 1965 to 1968.[8][6] In June 1968 she married Simon van Heyningen, whom she had met when she was a student at Girton and he was a PhD student at King's College. Her subsequent career choices were shaped by the two-body problem.[8]

She spent two years at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she was awarded a Master of Science degree.[6] After initially arranging to work on a PhD with Harry Harris in the UCL Galton Laboratory at University College London (UCL), she moved to Oxford where she was able to work with Walter Bodmer, newly arrived as Professor of Genetics.[8] With Bodmer, van Heyningen worked on early gene mapping studies using somatic cell hybrids.[7] She was supported by a three-year doctoral training grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC).[8] In 1973[8] she completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree[19] at the University of Oxford.[7]

Career[edit]

Van Heyningen was awarded a Beit Memorial Fellowship, which enabled her to take up a fellowship in Edinburgh with Peter Walker at the MRC Mammalian Genome Unit (MGU). In June 1977, after the fellowship ended, she joined the MRC Clinical and Population Cytogenetics Unit (CAPCU). She gained tenure there in February 1981. In 1992, Van Heyningen received funding as part of the International Research Scholar program of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). She became the leader of what later became known as the Medical and Developmental Genetics Section. Van Heyningen worked at CAPCU (later named the MRC Human Genetics Unit or MRC HGU) for 35 years, retiring in 2012.[8]

Van Heyningen served as president of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) in 2003 and of The Genetics Society from 2009 to 2012.[20] Van Heyningen served as a member of the UK Human Genetics Commission.[20]

After her retirement in 2012, Van Heyningen moved to London. She is an honorary (non-teaching) professor at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, associated with University College London and the Moorfields Eye Hospital. She continues to collaborate with researchers such as ophthalmologist Andrew Webster.[8] In 2013 her work led to becoming patron of the charity Aniridia Network for people affected by aniridia in the UK.[21]

Research[edit]

Van Heyningen is a geneticist who studies eye development and disease. Among her research highlights is the discovery of the PAX6 gene, which is mutated in the eye disorder aniridia — the absence of the iris. PAX6 also coordinates the expression of other eye development genes, including the SOX2 and Orthodenticle homeobox 2 (OTX2) genes which are mutated in microphthalmia and anophthalmia. In the context of PAX6, she has explored in detail mechanisms of long-range gene regulation and aspects of phenotype variation.[20][8]

Awards and honours[edit]

Van Heyningen has received many awards in recognition of her work, including being appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to science in the 2010 Birthday Honours.[22] She was awarded the Carter Medal of the Clinical Genetics Society in 2011.[20] Other awards include:

References[edit]

Scholia has an author profile for Veronica van Heyningen.
  1. ^ a b "Find people in the EMBO Communities". People.embo.org. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  2. ^ Kleinjan, D. A.; Van Heyningen, V (2005). "Long-range control of gene expression: Emerging mechanisms and disruption in disease". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 76 (1): 8–32. doi:10.1086/426833. PMC 1196435. PMID 15549674.
  3. ^ Ericson, J; Rashbass, P; Schedl, A; Brenner-Morton, S; Kawakami, A; Van Heyningen, V; Jessell, T. M.; Briscoe, J (1997). "Pax6 controls progenitor cell identity and neuronal fate in response to graded Shh signaling". Cell. 90 (1): 169–80. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80323-2. PMID 9230312. S2CID 17054686.
  4. ^ Veronica van Heyningen publications from Europe PubMed Central
  5. ^ a b Veronica van Heyningen publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Anon (2017). "Van Heyningen, Prof. Veronica". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U245983. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ a b c d Veronica Van Heyningen Official website Edit this at Wikidata
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l van Heyningen, Veronica (31 August 2022). "A Journey Through Genetics to Biology". Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. 23 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1146/annurev-genom-010622-095109. ISSN 1527-8204. PMID 35567277. S2CID 248776330. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  9. ^ Veronica van Heyningen's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  10. ^ a b "Veronica van Heyningen, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4". Bbc.co.uk. BBC.
  11. ^ "Medical Research Council". Hgu.mrc.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  12. ^ Hill, R. E.; Favor, J; Hogan, B. L.; Ton, C. C.; Saunders, G. F.; Hanson, I. M.; Prosser, J; Jordan, T; Hastie, N. D.; Van Heyningen, V (1991). "Mouse small eye results from mutations in a paired-like homeobox-containing gene". Nature. 354 (6354): 522–5. Bibcode:1991Natur.354..522H. doi:10.1038/354522a0. PMID 1684639. S2CID 4317526.
  13. ^ Pritchard-Jones, K; Fleming, S; Davidson, D; Bickmore, W; Porteous, D; Gosden, C; Bard, J; Buckler, A; Pelletier, J; Housman, D; Van Heyningen, Veronica; Hastie, Nicholas (1990). "The candidate Wilms' tumour gene is involved in genitourinary development". Nature. 346 (6280): 194–7. Bibcode:1990Natur.346..194P. doi:10.1038/346194a0. PMID 2164159. S2CID 4350729.
  14. ^ Ton, C. C.; Hirvonen, H; Miwa, H; Weil, M. M.; Monaghan, P; Jordan, T; Van Heyningen, V; Hastie, N. D.; Meijers-Heijboer, H; Drechsler, M (1991). "Positional cloning and characterization of a paired box- and homeobox-containing gene from the aniridia region" (PDF). Cell. 67 (6): 1059–74. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(91)90284-6. hdl:2027.42/28976. PMID 1684738. S2CID 34641827.
  15. ^ "Imortalized Cell Lines", Chromosome analysis protocols, Editor John R. Gosden, Humana Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-89603-243-9
  16. ^ "Developmental biology", Doctors to the genome: from conception to maturity], Editors Ieuan A. Hughes, Mark Gardiner, Royal College of Physicians, 1998, ISBN 978-1-86016-078-3
  17. ^ Long-Range Control of Gene Expression, Editors Veronica van Heyningen, Robert E. Hill, Academic Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-12-373881-3
  18. ^ Frith, Uta (2019). "Goodbye Diversity Committee". Royalsociety.org. Royal Society. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019.
  19. ^ van Heyningen, Veronica (1973). Mitochondrial and other Enzymes in Somatic Cell Hybrids. Ora.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 500471367. Free access icon
  20. ^ a b c d e Anon (2007). "Professor Veronica van Heyningen CBE FMedSci FRS". Royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)
  21. ^ "Patron Veronica van Heynigen". Aniridia Network. Aniridia Network. 22 April 2023. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  22. ^ "No. 59446". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2010. p. 8.
  23. ^ Office of Grants and Special Programs (1993). Grants for Science Education, 1992-1993 (PDF). Howard Hughes Medical Institute. p. 79.
  24. ^ "Professor Veronica van Heyningen CBE, FRS, FRSE, FREng, FMedSci". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  25. ^ "Professor Veronica van Heyningen - The Academy of Medical Sciences". Acmedsci.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
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