The Joseph Leidy Professorship of Cell & Developmental Biology

Joseph LeidyEstablished in 1926 through the generosity of friends, students and colleagues, the Professorship honors Joseph Leidy, MD (1823–1891), a distinguished alumnus of the Perelman School of Medicine Class of 1844.

Dr. Leidy, a pioneer in comparative anatomy and zoology and an internationally renowned mineralogist, botanist, paleontologist and anatomist, was named Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania in1853 and held the chair for nearly 40 years. During his illustrious career, he published a monograph in 1853 describing natural selection six years prior to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

Dr. Leidy made several expeditions to Europe and to the western United States, where he obtained invaluable botanical and anatomical specimens that he donated to the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Mount Leidy, on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, bears his name. For his groundbreaking research, he received countless awards and degrees, including the Cuvier Prize Medal of the Institute of France in 1888.

 

Kenneth S. ZaretCurrent Chairholder:
Kenneth S. Zaret, PhD

Kenneth S. Zaret, PhD is the Joseph Leidy Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology and Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Zaret’s laboratory discovered “pioneer transcription factors” that endow the competence for cell differentiation and promote cellular reprogramming. His laboratory identified a signaling network to chromatin that induces liver and pancreas organogenesis; the information is used to generate hepatic and pancreatic beta cells from stem cells. His laboratory found that endothelial cells promote liver and pancreas morphogenesis; the information is being used to engineer artificial organs. His laboratory used stem cell technology to model pancreatic cancer progression; the information has revealed biomarkers to detect pancreatic cancer. Dr. Zaret received his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Rochester (1982) and the Jane Coffin Childs Post doctorate at UC San Francisco (1985); Professor of Biomedical Science, Brown University (1986–1999); and the W.W. Smith Chair in Cancer Research and Program Leader of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center (1999–2009).

Previous Chairholders:

  • James M. Sprague, PhD 1967–1976
  • Frank A. Pepe, MD 1977–1990
  • Eliot Stellar, MSc, PhD 1990–Date unknown
  • Charles P. Emerson, Jr., PhD 1994–2003