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Personal papers of geneticist and Columbia University professor of neuropsychology, Nancy Wexler, documenting her field research in Venezuela, along with her education and training at Harvard, personal and professional correspondence and research uncovering the gene causing Huntington Disease.
History and Biography
Nancy Sabin Wexler was born to psychoanalyst Milton Wexler and geneticist Leonore Sabin on July 19, 1945. She attended Radcliffe College (A.B. 1967), was a Fulbright scholar at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica (1967-1968), enrolled in the Hampstead Clinic Child Psychoanalytic Training Institute in London (1968), and studied clinical psychology at the University of Michigan (PhD 1974).
Her mother, Leonore, was diagnosed with Huntington disease (formerly Huntington’s chorea), prompting her interest and genetic research into the disease. Her father established of the Hereditary Disease Foundation (HDF) in 1968 to support research in treating Huntington disease and other genetic disorders. She is sister to historian Alice Wexler who authored books relating to Huntington Disease in their family: The woman who walked into the sea: Huntington's and the making of a genetic disease (Yale University Press, 2008); and The analyst: a daughter's memoir (Columbia University Press, 2022).
Beginning in 1979, Nancy Wexler led field research in Venezuela analyzing the DNA from communities exhibiting high rates of Huntington disease. This twenty-year study resulted in the identification and location of the genetic marker causing the disease found in human chromosome 4. She also collaborated on the creation of a chromosomal test to identify carriers of the disease.
At the time of this writing, Wexler is Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physician and Surgeons, Columbia University, as well as President of the Hereditary Disease Foundation.
Wexler has held leadership positions at the Human Genome Organization and the Joint NIH/DOE Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Working Group of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
She has been awarded the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science (2007), and has received honorary doctorates from New York Medical College, the University of Michigan, Bard College and Yale University
Organization
Records stemming from Wexler’s research in Venezuela include consent forms, pedigree data, activity sheets, and other data derived from human test participants/subjects, along with correspondence, rolodexes, notes, reports, research grants, photographs, and video and audio records of exams.
Records relating to Wexler’s professional activities with the Human Genome Organization, Cure HD Initiative, Euro Huntington’s Disease Network, Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Genetics, Health and Behavior, World Congress on HD, and the World Federation of Neurology Research Group in Huntington’s Disease. Includes meeting agendas and minutes, workshop records, booklets and reports, and other records from meetings Wexler participated in such as: Society for Neuroscience, American Neurological Association annual meetings, UCLA Health and Care Meeting, Keep Memory Alive board meetings, NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the World Economic Forum annual meetings. Includes Wexler’s lectures at Columbia University on Huntington’s Disease and those at other universities and neurological societies.
Records originating from the Hereditary Disease Foundation include newsletters, reports, press clippings, correspondence, conference materials, grants and contracts, financial documents, fundraising documents, event programs, calendars, photographs, objects and ephemera, articles and other reference works along with general files regarding Huntington Disease research alphabetical by name. Personal materials from Nancy Wexler include correspondence, notes and other writings, awards, plaques, diplomas, and certificates.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of Nancy Wexler in 2021 and 2022 (accessions # 2021.019 and #2022.057).
The records are unprocessed. Please contact Archives & Special Collections for more information about access.