Health and Well-Being in Amish Society
Session 2
Thursday, June 6, 2019 • 7:00 pm
Keynote Address: Ancestral Antecedents of Illness: Opportunities for Assessment and Amelioration
Joseph B. Martin, MD, Ph.D.
Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology, Emeritus
Harvard Medical School
Amish communities have long made important contributions to medical knowledge through their participation in genetic research. Dr. Joseph Martin, whose research was instrumental in identifying the genetic underpinning of Huntington's disease and other disorders, will describe today’s rapidly developing landscape of medical genetics, focusing on the power of genetics to identify inherited disorders and the promise of new treatments. Remarkable breakthroughs are changing the way we can imagine the future of health care, though they also raise important questions for researchers, doctors, and patients.
Joseph B. Martin received his medical degree from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, completed a residency in neurology and fellowship in neuropathology at Case Western Reserve University, and received his Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Rochester. Martin began his career in academic medicine at McGill University in Montreal, where he later became chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. In 1978, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School as the Bullard Professor of Neurology and chief of the neurology service at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and in 1984, he was appointed the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard. Later, Martin began his tenure as dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and went on to serve as chancellor of UCSF for four years. He returned to Harvard in 1997, serving as dean of the medical school for ten years and then as Lefler Professor of Neurobiology until his retirement in 2016. Martin is the author or coauthor of more than 300 scientific articles and reviews, and a former editor of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, a widely used medical textbook. He has received numerous national and international distinctions throughout his career.