Kim Orth is a microbiologist and biochemist. She is currently the Earl A. Forsythe chair in biomedical science and professor of

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

and

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

UT Southwestern The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient vis ...

. She is a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

investigator and a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. Her research focuses on

bacterial pathogenesis Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. Kim Orth graduated from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

in 1984 with a B.S. in

. She went to the

UCLA School of Medicine The University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine—known as the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM)—is an accredited medical school located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The school was renamed in 2001 in h ...

for an M.S. in biological chemistry, and then to

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 18,800 employees, more than 2,900 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient vi ...

for a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.

History and research

After obtaining her PhD in

Biological Chemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

at UT Southwestern Medical Center, she moved with her husband to the University of Michigan. Over the course of 7 years at University of Michigan, she had multiple productive postdocs in various fields while becoming a working mother of two. During her final postdoc at the University of Michigan, she discovered the field of host-pathogen interactions. After two years of working in this field, she accepted faculty position in 2001 at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the Department of Molecular Biology, and became an Earl A. Forsythe Chair in Biomedical Science. Over the years, she worked in labs doing protein chemistry, ''Drosophilia'' genetics, cell biology, biochemistry and molecular microbial genetics. Using these tools, Dr. Orth developed a program to identify bacterial virulence factors and uncover their molecular activity.

Awards

* 2003 Beckman Young Investigators * 2006 Burroughs Wellcome Investigator in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease * 2012 ASBMB Young Investigator Award * 2016 Elected fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

* 2018 ASBMB Merck Award * 2020

References

External links

Kim Orth: My winding trail while fulfilling my love for science and family
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orth, Kim Howard Hughes Medical Investigators University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center alumni University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center faculty American women biochemists Texas A&M University alumni David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA alumni 20th-century American biologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women academics