Dr. High Elected to Academy of Arts and Sciences
Published on in CHOP News
May 10, 2011 — Katherine A. High, MD, a gene therapy expert at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has been elected to the 2011 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy is one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and is a leading center for independent policy research.
Dr. High joins a select group of scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders that includes Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize awardees, and winners of MacArthur Fellowships, Oscar Awards and Kennedy Center honors.
Dr. High noted for gene therapy research breakthroughs
A hematologist, Dr. High is internationally recognized for her research on gene therapy, particularly in developing and conducting landmark clinical studies. She has been in the forefront of the effort to develop gene therapy for the inherited bleeding disorder hemophilia and continues to pursue this research. She directs the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at Children’s Hospital. In 2009, that center sponsored a clinical trial that produced dramatic improvements in children and young adults with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, a congenital form of blindness.
Dr. High is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the William H. Bennett Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She also is a past president of the American Society of Gene Therapy.
About the Academy of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, the Academy elects leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation. Past members have included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, and Albert Einstein.
Members of the 2011 Academy class
The Academy announced its newest members on April 19. They will be honored in an induction ceremony on Oct. 1, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Among the 212 members of the 201l Academy class are astronomer Paul Butler, stem cell scientist George Q. Daley, singer-songwriters Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, filmmaker Ken Burns, jazz musician Dave Brubeck, novelist Oscar Hijuelos, and actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Sam Waterston.
Contact
John Ascenzi, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 267-426-6055, ascenzi@email.chop.edu