Eric Newell Olson (born September 27, 1955 in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

) is an American molecular biologist. He is professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient ...

in Dallas, where he also holds the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science, the Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research, and the Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects.

Biography

Olson grew up in North Carolina and attended

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

, receiving a B.A. in Chemistry and Biology, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. After postdoctoral training at

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine shares a ca ...

, he began his scientific career at

MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center and autonomous university of the University of Texas System in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the wo ...

in Houston. In 1995, he founded the Department of Molecular Biology at

UT Southwestern The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient ...

. Olson and his trainees discovered many of the key genes and mechanisms responsible for development of the heart and other muscles. His laboratory also unveiled the signaling pathways responsible for pathological cardiac growth and heart failure. Olson’s discoveries at the interface of developmental biology and medicine have illuminated the fundamental principles of organ formation and have provided new concepts in the quest for cardiovascular therapeutics. His most recent work has provided a new strategy for correction of Duchenne muscular dystrophy using

CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...

gene editing. Olson is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His work has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Basic Research Prize and Research Achievement Award from the American Heart Association, the Pasarow Medical Research Award, the Pollin Prize, the Passano Award, and the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. In 2009, the French Academy of Science awarded Dr. Olson the Lefoulon-Delalande Grand Prize for Science. His work has been cited over 200,000 times in the scientific literature. Olson was awarded the Eugene Braunwald Mentorship Award from the American Heart Association. The International Society for Heart Research also established the Eric N. Olson Mentorship Award in his honor. Olson serves on the advisory boards of numerous organizations and has founded multiple biotechnology companies to translate the discoveries from his laboratory to the clinic. In his spare time, he plays guitar and harmonica with The Transactivators, a rock band inspired by the Texas musician,

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

, who created the professorship that supports Olson's research.

Awards and honors

* 1998 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences * 1998 Edgar Haber Cardiovascular Medicine Research Award, American Heart Association * 1999 American Heart Association Basic Research Prize * 1999 Gill Heart Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Medicine * 1999 Elected to

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Natio ...

* 2000

Pasarow Award The Robert J. And Claire Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Awards were awarded annually for distinguished accomplishment in areas of investigation that included neuropsychiatry, cardiovascular disease, and cancer research. The program ran from 1 ...

in Cardiovascular Medicine * 2000

NIH MERIT Award The NIH MERIT award (Method To Extend Research in Time) Award (R37) was created by the National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical an ...

* 2001 Elected to the Institute of Medicine of National Academy of Sciences * 2003 Founding Distinguished Scientist Award, American Heart Association * 2003 Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Cardiovascular Diseases, McGill University * 2005 Outstanding Investigator Award, International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) * 2005

Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research The Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research was an annual award given to physicians who contributed important advances to the field of pediatrics, and was the only existing international pediatric award. The prize was created in 2002 by Irene and Abe ...

, Columbia University * 2008 American Heart Association Research Achievement Award * 2009 LeFoulon Delalande Grand Prix Awarded by the Institut de France and French Academy of Science * 2012

Passano Award The Passano Foundation, established in 1945, provides an annual award to a research scientist whose work – done in the United States – is thought to have immediate practical benefits. Many Passano laureates have subsequently won the Nobel Priz ...

Passano Foundation The Passano Foundation, established in 1945, provides an annual award to a research scientist whose work – done in the United States – is thought to have immediate practical benefits. Many Passano laureates have subsequently won the Nobel Priz ...

* 2013

March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology The March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology is awarded once a year by the March of Dimes. The Prize honors outstanding scientists who profoundly advance the science that underlies our understanding of pregnancy, parturition, and Prenatal dev ...

March of Dimes March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. The organization was founded by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to co ...

* 2016 Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award, American Heart Association

References

External links

Olson Lab Website

UT Southwestern Medical Center Department of Molecular Biology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Eric 1955 births Living people American molecular biologists University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center faculty Wake Forest University alumni Scientists from North Carolina 21st-century American biologists Scientists from Rochester, New York Scientists from New York (state) Members of the National Academy of Medicine Washington University in St. Louis fellows