Elizabeth Fondal Neufeld (born September 27, 1928) is a French-American geneticist whose research has focused on the genetic basis of metabolic disease in humans.

Life

Neufeld and her Russian Jewish family emigrated to the United States from Paris in 1940; they had left Europe as refugees to escape Nazi persecution. The family settled in New York, where she attended

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a public academic magnet secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered and funded by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and no t ...

before graduating from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

in 1948 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

. She went on to work as a research assistant at the

Jackson Laboratory The Jackson Laboratory (often abbreviated as JAX) is an independent, non-profit biomedical research institution which was founded by Clarence Cook Little in 1929. It employs over 3,000 employees in Bar Harbor, Maine; Sacramento, California; F ...

Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor () is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. The town is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laborat ...

, looking at

blood disorder Hematologic diseases are disorders which primarily affect the blood and blood-forming organs. Hematologic diseases include rare genetic disorders, anemia, HIV, sickle cell disease and complications from chemotherapy or transfusions. Myeloid * ...

s in

mice A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

. Later on, she attended graduate school at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1956 for her work on nucleotides and complex carbohydrates. Neufeld has been widely recognized for her contributions to science. She is a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. She was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1977. Neufeld has been awarded the

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for "achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of natio ...

, the

Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert Computers, Inc., a computer manufacturer in the 1980s * Albert Czech Republic, a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street mar ...

, and was awarded the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

in 1994 "for her contributions to the understanding of the lysosomal storage diseases, demonstrating the strong linkage between basic and applied scientific investigation." Neufeld was a biochemist researcher at the National Institute of Health studying mucopolysaccharidosis disorders, a group of lysosomal storage disorders in which mucopolysaccharides cannot be metabolized properly in the body. Her work showed that the genetic defects observed in Hunter and Hurler syndrome are due to a degradation of mucopolysaccharides. Neufeld's work helped advance the treatment of Hurler and Hunter syndrome. In 1973, Neufeld became chief of NIH section of Human Biochemical Genetics, and in 1979, she became the chief of the Genetics and Biochemistry branch of National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIADDK). Neufeld retired in 2004 from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

as Chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry, a position she occupied since 1984.

Personal life

Elizabeth Fondal married Benjamin S. Neufeld in 1951; they had two children together.Benjamin S. Neufeld September 5, 1926 - March 28, 2020
Mount Sinai Parks. Accessed Feb. 27, 2022.

Selected publications

Ohmi K, Greenberg DS, Rajavel KS, Ryazantsev S, Li HH, Neufeld EF., (2003),
Activated microglia in cortex of mouse models of mucopolysaccharidoses I and IIIB.
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America''. 100: 1902-7. PMID 12576554 DOI: 10.1073/Pnas.252784899 Elizabeth F. Neufeld, W.Z. Hassid,(1963),
Biosynthesis of Saccharides from Glycopyranosyl Esters of Nucleotides (“Sugar Nucleotides”)
Editor(s): Melville L. Wolfrom, R. Stuart Tipson, Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry,Academic Press,Volume 18,1963,Pages 309-356,ISSN 0096-5332,ISBN 9780120072187, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0096-5332(08)60246-5.

References

External links

Home Page at UCLA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neufeld, Elizabeth F. 1928 births French emigrants to the United States 20th-century French Jews Hunter College High School alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American geneticists National Medal of Science laureates Living people Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Jewish American scientists Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Scientists from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Life

Personal life

Selected publications

See also

References

Further reading

External links