Residence FinlandUnited States Fields Genetics | Name Albert la | |
Born 11 February 1932Helsinki, Finland ( 1932-02-11 ) Notable awards William Allan Award (2002) | ||
Albert de la Chapelle, MD, Ph.D (born 11 February 1933 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish human geneticist.
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Personal life and education
De la Chapelle was born in 1933 in Helsinki into a farming family. He attended school locally, transferring later to high-school in Helsinki. Graduating high-school in 1950, he transferred directly into medical school, graduating in 1957 after a brief hiatus to complete military service. He later would be awarded his Ph.D from the same institution in 1962.
He is married to American physician and cancer researcher, Clara D. Bloomfield.
Career
In 1972, De la Chapelle was credited for having first characterized the eponymous De la Chapelle syndrome, or XX male syndrome. He is currently professor in the Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics at The Ohio State University. He was professor of medical genetics at the University of Helsinki from 1974-1997, and was medical director of the University of Helsinki Central Hospital from 1977-1997. He has also been an outspoken critic of gender verification in sports, writing in JAMA in 1986 that "the present screening method is both inaccurate and discriminatory".
His current academic interests relate to the study of genes associated with cancer predisposition, particularly the BAALC gene and its role in leukemogenesis.