The HD View with Dr. Kenneth P. Serbin

Our incredible special gues this afternoon is Kenneth P. Serbin, Ph.D., professor and chair in the USD College of Arts and Sciences,Department of History, served as vice president, president, and immediate past president of the Brazilian Studies Association (2004-2010).  He also was the co-chair of the Brazil Section of the Latin American Studies Association from 2003-2006.

Kenneth Serbin’s mother died of Huntington’s disease in 2006 after a 20-year battle against the disease. Serbin tested positive for HD in 1999. His daughter Bianca tested negative for HD in the womb and is today a healthy 13-year-old eighth grader. Since 1998, Serbin has served as a volunteer advocate for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA). Adopting the pseudonym “Gene Veritas,” in January 2005 he started the blog “At Risk for Huntington’s Disease” (www.curehd.blogspot.com), where he has posted more than 160 articles. Starting in 2007, he initiated the effort in California to obtain funding for HD research from the state’s world-leading stem cell institute. In 2011, Serbin went public about his gene-positive status by keynoting the 6th annual HD Therapeutics Conference of the CHDI Foundation, Inc. That year he was also named the HDSA Person of the Year. Serbin lives with his wife Regina and Bianca in San Diego. He teaches history at the University of San Diego.