Frans Huijing

Professor of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology

Ph.D. (1964) University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Medical Biochemistry, Genetic Diseases
and Inborn Errors of Metabolism

Tel: (305) 243-6244, Fax: (305) 243-3065

fhuijing@med.miami.edu

My interest is to integrate and apply new findings in biochemistry and molecular biology to medicine. Current projects are attempts to understand:

The role of the glucose transporter GLUT2 in an attempt to understand the symptoms of patients with a glycogen-storage disease do to a defect in the gene for this protein.

The function and metabolism of retinol, retinal and retinoic acid and to understand how gene therapy that replaces one protein involved in this metabolism can improve one specific type of blindness.

The function of the proteins involved in the transduction of force from the contractile elements of muscle cells to the extra-cellular matrix.

I teach clinical correlation in small self-study groups of sophomore medical students in the Liver, Gastrointestinal and Nutrition Curriculum.

In the past I have taught medical students in lectures and clinical correlation conferences on

• Osteogenesis imperfecta, defective synthesis of collagen leading to fragile bones.
• Diabetes.
• Tay-Sachs disease and other lysosomal storage diseases.
• Breast cancer.
• Synthesis of steroid hormones.
• Integration of the action of insulin and its counter-regulatory hormones.

I am the advisor for undergraduate biochemistry majors at the University of Miami.

I teach these and other students in our courses:

• BMB 151 and BMB 251 Seminar courses for Freshman and Sophomore undergraduate biochemistry majors (Spring semester).
• BMB 258, an introductory biochemistry class for sophomore undergraduate biochemistry majors and premed biomedical engineering students (Spring semester).
• BMB 401, a large biochemistry class for premed students (Fall)
• BMB 501 Senior seminar (Fall and Spring)
• BMB 506 Principles of Biochemistry (Fall) This is a combined lecture and tutorial class that emphasizes information gathering from protein, genetics and molecular biology databases.

I participate in the Genetic-Pathology Conferences and recently presented information on a patient with severe congenital Gaucher disease at one of these conferences.