Eric Olson, Ph.D. Professor & Chair Endowed Title Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research; Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects; The Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science School Medical School Department Molecular Biology Graduate Programs Genetics, Development and Disease Biography Eric N. Olson is the founding Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern. He holds the Robert A. Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair, the Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research, and the Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects. Eric Olson and his trainees discovered the key transcription factors and mechanisms that control development and disease of cardiac and skeletal muscles. His discoveries at the interface of basic science and medicine have profoundly influenced our understanding of the development and dysfunction of the cardiovascular and muscular systems and have provided new targets for therapeutic development. Most recently, Olson conceived a gene editing method to correct a majority of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) mutations and demonstrated the effectiveness of this method in patient-derived muscle cells, and in mice and dogs with DMD. This method is now being advanced toward clinical translation. Olson is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards for his research. Dr. Olson has trained scores of students and postdoctoral fellows who have emerged as the next generation of leaders in cardiovascular biology. He was awarded the Eugene Braunwald Mentorship Award from the American Heart Association, and the International Society for Heart Research established the Eric N. Olson Mentorship Award in his honor. Olson serves on the advisory boards of numerous organizations, including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and has founded multiple biotechnology companies to translate the discoveries from his laboratory to the clinic. Education Undergraduate Wake Forest Univ - Undergradua (1977), Chemistry Undergraduate Wake Forest Univ - Undergradua (1977), Biology Graduate School Wake Forest Univ - Sch of Medi (1981), Biochemistry Research Interest Muscle Development Stem cells Transcriptional Regulation Publications Featured Publications MOXI Is a Mitochondrial Micropeptide That Enhances Fatty Acid ?-Oxidation. Makarewich CA, Baskin KK, Munir AZ, Bezprozvannaya S, Sharma G, Khemtong C, Shah AM, McAnally JR, Malloy CR, Szweda LI, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN Cell Rep 2018 Jun 23 13 3701-3709 Fusogenic micropeptide Myomixer is essential for satellite cell fusion and muscle regeneration. Bi P, McAnally JR, Shelton JM, Sánchez-Ortiz E, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018 Mar Correction of diverse muscular dystrophy mutations in human engineered heart muscle by single-site genome editing. Long C, Li H, Tiburcy M, Rodriguez-Caycedo C, Kyrychenko V, Zhou H, Zhang Y, Min YL, Shelton JM, Mammen PPA, Liaw NY, Zimmermann WH, Bassel-Duby R, Schneider JW, Olson EN Sci Adv 2018 Jan 4 1 eaap9004 Single-cut genome editing restores dystrophin expression in a new mouse model of muscular dystrophy. Amoasii L, Long C, Li H, Mireault AA, Shelton JM, Sanchez-Ortiz E, McAnally JR, Bhattacharyya S, Schmidt F, Grimm D, Hauschka SD, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN Sci Transl Med 2017 Nov 9 418 Functional correction of dystrophin actin binding domain mutations by genome editing. Kyrychenko V, Kyrychenko S, Tiburcy M, Shelton JM, Long C, Schneider JW, Zimmermann WH, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN JCI Insight 2017 Sep 2 18 ZNF281 enhances cardiac reprogramming by modulating cardiac and inflammatory gene expression. Zhou H, Morales MG, Hashimoto H, Dickson ME, Song K, Ye W, Kim MS, Niederstrasser H, Wang Z, Chen B, Posner BA, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN Genes Dev. 2017 Sep 31 17 1770-1783 KLHL41 stabilizes skeletal muscle sarcomeres by nonproteolytic ubiquitination. Ramirez-Martinez A, Cenik BK, Bezprozvannaya S, Chen B, Bassel-Duby R, Liu N, Olson EN Elife 2017 Aug 6 Mining for Micropeptides. Makarewich CA, Olson EN Trends Cell Biol. 2017 May Control of muscle formation by the fusogenic micropeptide myomixer. Bi P, Ramirez-Martinez A, Li H, Cannavino J, McAnally JR, Shelton JM, Sánchez-Ortiz E, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN Science 2017 Apr 356 6335 323-327 CRISPR-Cpf1 correction of muscular dystrophy mutations in human cardiomyocytes and mice. Zhang Y, Long C, Li H, McAnally JR, Baskin KK, Shelton JM, Bassel-Duby R, Olson EN Sci Adv 2017 Apr 3 4 e1602814 Results 1-10 of 48 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards Eric N. Olson Mentorship Award established by International Society for Heart Research (2020) Edwin G. Conklin Medal in Developmental Biology (2019) Libin Prize for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research, Heritage Foundation, Canada (2017) Dallas Historical Society Award for Excellence in Medicine (2016) The Eugene Braunwald Mentorship Award, American Heart Association (2016) March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology (2013) Research Achievement Award, International Society for Heart Research (2013) Passano Award (2012) Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande Grand Prize for Science (2009) Pollin Prize in Pediatric Research (2005) Institute of Medicine (2001) National Academy of Sciences (2000) Pasarow Award in Cardiovascular Medicine (2000) Professional Associations/Affiliations Editorial Board, Circulation (1993) Editorial Board, Developmental Cell (2005) Editorial Board, EMBO Molecular Medicine (2008) Editorial Board, Molecular and Cellular Biology (1993)
