News Releases
3/29/05
An internationally renowned researcher in reproductive biology was honored today with the Hall Family Foundation Professorship in Molecular Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.
David F. Albertini, KU professor of molecular and integrative physiology, was named the Hall Professor during an investiture ceremony today at the KU School of Nursing auditorium. The professorship is part of a 1993 gift of $2.6 million to the Kansas University Endowment Association from the Hall Family Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.
The professorship will help support Albertini’s efforts to further develop a research program in molecular medicine with an emphasis on reproductive and developmental biology. His research may lead to advances in ovarian cancer prevention, fetal development and infertility treatments at KU, said Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center and executive dean of the KU School of Medicine.
“Professor Albertini’s research interest and international stature will add greater depth to the nationally renowned developmental and reproductive biology programs of the KU School of Medicine,” Atkinson said.
Albertini joined the KU Medical Center in 2004 after 20 years at Tufts University in Boston, where he was a professor of anatomy and cellular biology and obstetrics and gynecology. In addition to his academic appointments at Tufts, he was a lecturer in the Harvard University Department of Pathology, a visiting staff scientist at the New England Regional Primate Research Center, and a faculty member at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass.
Albertini’s research emphasis is on women’s health in relation to the causes of human infertility and ovarian cancer, and in the use of assisted reproductive technology to improve egg and embryo quality in human and animal models. His research uses molecular, genetic and optical imaging methods to study the basic aspects of the process of reproduction that affect human disease.
In addition to his research, Albertini is a committed educator, Atkinson said. He previously taught courses in anatomy and in cell, developmental and tissue biology, and he mentored 10 postdoctoral students and 10 graduate students at Tufts. At KU he is mentoring three doctoral students, two postdoctoral students and two junior faculty members. He will begin teaching KU medical students next year. Albertini also has become a resource for area leaders in understanding the science of stem cell therapies.
Albertini received the 2001 Founders Lecturer Award from the Australian Society for
Reproductive Biology, the 2002 Hammond Medal from the European Society for Reproduction and Fertility, and was the 2003 Colwin Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory. At Tufts University, he also received the Lauro F. Cavazos Teaching Award in 1989 and the President’s Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award in 1996.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1970 at Marquette University and a master’s degree in zoology at the University of Massachusetts in 1972. In 1975, he earned a doctorate in cell biology at Harvard University. He completed a research fellowship in physiology and a NIH fellowship at the University of Connecticut Health Center.
KU Endowment is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.
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