In 2007, Nancy Wexler, PhD, received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science for her discovery of the gene for Huntington’s Disease.

Dr. Wexler is Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, as well as the President of the Hereditary Disease Foundation. She is most widely known for her important scientific contribution on Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited disorder that causes nerve cells (neurons) in parts of the brain to gradually break down and die.