UTMB Pediatrician Garners International Award

GALVESTON, Texas — Dr. Rueben Matalon, professor of pediatric cytogenetics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, recently received a rare honorary professorship from Kharkiv National University Medical School in Ukraine. The award recognizes Matalon’s work with Ukrainian physicians and health officials to establish screening and treatment programs for infants with phenylketonuria (PKU), a dangerous, genetic metabolic disorder.

Matalon was presented with the honorary professorship, as well as a medal, at the Ukrainian university’s 200th anniversary celebration May 5 at the State Opera House in Kiev. He is one of only a handful of honorary professors in the university’s history.

Ukrainian physicians at the university’s Center for Genetics contacted Matalon in 2002 to get his expert advice on starting a PKU program. Matalon began working with them long-distance, and he now advises on PKU screening equipment, screening procedures and diet treatments. He has made three trips to the university, giving lectures and assisting with PKU patients. He also has appeared on Ukrainian national television and has met Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Health, Rayisa Bohatyrova.

PKU affects only one out of every approximately 10,000 babies born in the U.S. Without proper screening and treatment within the first weeks of life, the disorder—which renders the body unable to metabolize the essential amino acid, phenylalanine—results in mental retardation and other neurological problems. When a very strict diet is begun early and well-maintained, affected children can expect normal development and a normal life span.

Newborn screening for PKU began in the United States in the mid-1960s, and today it is routinely carried out in every state and in many other countries. Matalon is helping health officials in the Ukraine to make screening and treatment programs available there as well.

Matalon, a pediatrician at UTMB Children’s Hospital, will return to Kharkiv in October to serve as president of the Second Ukrainian Congress on Clinical Genetics. The meeting is sponsored by the Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, the Kharkiv Municipal Executive Committee, the Kharkiv State Medical University and the Kharkiv Medical-Genetic Centre, and calls together internationally renowned scientists looking for ways to detect and treat rare diseases such as PKU.

Kharkiv National University is one of Eastern Europe’s oldest institutions of higher education. Three Nobel laureates sit on its faculty, and Matalon shares the school’s honorary professorship distinction with such legends as German poet Johann W. Goethe, German geographer Alexander von Humboldt, and Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Founded in 1804, the university has awarded degrees to more than 130,000 students.

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