Haig Kazazian

Haig H. Kazazian
Born	--> Toledo, Ohio
Died
Scientific career
Fields	Genetics

Haig H. Kazazian ( -January 19, 2022) was a professor in the Department of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.

Early life and education

Kazazian was born in Toledo, Ohio. His Armenian father left Kayseri, Turkey and escaped the 1915 Armenian genocide, arriving in the U.S. in 1923. His mother left Istanbul and arrived in the U.S. in 1920. Kazazian grew up speaking Armenian, Turkish and English.

Kazazian attended Dartmouth College, receiving his A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1959, followed by a two-year program at Dartmouth Medical School. He completed his M.D. degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1962 and interned in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. He then returned to Baltimore, Maryland, studying genetics with Dr. Barton Childs at Johns Hopkins (1964–1966) and molecular biology with Dr. Harvey Itano at the National Institutes of Health.

Career

Kazazian joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1969, became head of the Pediatric Genetics Unit and a full professor in 1977, and became Director of the Center for Medical Genetics at Johns Hopkins in 1988.

In 1994 Kazazian became Chair of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, holding the position until 2006. He remained at the University of Pennsylvaniaf as the Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine in Genetics from 2006-2010.

In July 2010, Kazazian returned to Johns Hopkins, holding the position of a Professor in the Institute of Genetic Medicine.

Research

Kazazian has made important contributions to human genetics through his research into DNA haplotypes and the molecular basis of beta thalassemia and through his exploration of retrotransposons (jumping genes).

Kazazian worked with Stuart Orkin to characterize mutations that cause beta-thalassemia

when Kazazian was studying mutations in hemophilia, he and his lab members found the first example of disease-causing mutations resulting from "jumping genes," or transposons. These mobile segments of DNA can sometimes cause disease by inserting into and disrupting a functional gene.

the understanding of the molecular basis of monogenic disorders, particularly hemoglobinopathies and hemophilia. identifying the molecular basis of hemoglobin disorders, hemophilia,

During his career, he established the first DNA diagnostic laboratory

his laboratory was among the first in the world to establish a molecular detection facility for monogenic disorders,

introduced the practice of prenatal diagnosis of hemoglobin disorders

Later in his career, Haig began to explore LINE retrotransposition in humans, and the role of mobile DNA elements (transposons or "jumping genes") in human disease. Retrotransposons copy and insert themselves into new locations in the genome. A small number of LINE-1 (L1) insertions are active in humans. Studying L1 insertions enables researchers to learn about human diversity,

Kazazian and Richard Cotton were founding co-editors of Human Mutation, which appeared in 1992.

In 1999, Kazazian and Arupa Ganguly were among the first plaintiffs in the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that companies cannot patent parts of naturally occurring human genes. In a unanimous ruling, for Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the court stated that "a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but manmade cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring."

Mobile DNA: Finding Treasure in Junk

Awards

• Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research, National Hemophilia Foundation
• Member, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences,
• Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2008, William Allan Award, American Society of Human Genetics