Creating a New Kind of Doctor
We recruit and train physician leaders as comfortable taking on systemic challenges in health as caring for individual patients.
ARE YOU ONE?
Radical Collaboration. Real-World Impact.
Texas expertise fuels the discovery, delivery and diffusion of the next generation of preventions, diagnoses, treatments and cures.
LET'S GO
World Class. Close to Home.
We’re working to make person-centered, integrated care the standard in Central Texas and beyond.
Health Starts Here
More Information
GET CARE
Meet Dell Med
We’re rethinking the role of academic medicine in improving health — and doing so with a unique focus on our community.
ABOUT US
More Information
EXPLORE
Make an Appointment Give Faculty Students Alumni Directory

Rare Disease Week: Keynote Lecture and Panel Discussion

Location: Hybrid: Health Learning Building Auditorium (HLB 1.111) & Zoom

Address: 1501 Red River St., Austin, Texas 78712 | View Map »

Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026

Time: 4–6 p.m.

Contact: Suzette Nava

Category:

About the Event

Join Dell Medical School’s Center for Rare Disease and the Department of Pediatrics for Rare Disease Week events.

Michio Hirano, M.D., provides the keynote lecture at 4 p.m. Z. Leah Harris, M.D., and Jewel Mullen, M.D., MPH, join him for a discussion at 5 p.m. A new art exhibition, “Positive Exposure,” opens after.

For more information and the Zoom link, email Suzette Nava.

Agenda

4-5 p.m. | Keynote Lecture | Neucleoside Therapy for Thymidine Kinase 2 Deficiency: From Mouse to FDA Approval

Presented by Michio Hirano, M.D. He serves as chief of the Neuromuscular Medicine Division, director for the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and director for the H. Houston Merritt Center for Muscular Dystrophy and Related Diseases. He is the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Neurology at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

5-6 p.m. | Panel Discussion | Rare but Real: Diagnostic and Screening Challenges

Panel members:

  • Michio Hirano, M.D.
  • Z. Leah Harris, M.D., is a professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics and director of the Dell Pediatric Research Institute at Dell Medical School.
  • Jewel Mullen, M.D., MPH, holds faculty appointments in the departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine at Dell Medical School. She also serves as the director of health equity for Ascension Seton and director of health equity and quality for Central Health, Travis County’s health district.

6 p.m. | Art Exhibition | Positive Exposure

Additional Rare Disease Week Activities at Dell Medical School

Hirano presents “Emerging Therapies for Mitochondrial Diseases” at the Pediatric Grand Rounds on Friday, Feb. 27. Learn more »