Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences: The Role of Financial Studies

Starting from 1969, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has become responsible for selecting Nobel laureates in Economic Sciences. In these 50 years 81 academics have been awarded with the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; in this framework, the Royal Swedish Academy gave prizes to pure economists, finance experts and scholars investigating topics in between economics and finance. This paper first explains and describes quick facts about this important Prize and its origin, then analyses awarded fields and literature research done about this special topic. The core part of the paper investigates the choices of the Royal Swedish Academy, with a special focus on the financial theories awarded, in order to highlight the contributions of the academics awarded with the Nobel Prize to the development of the most accredited financial theories and practices

Founder mutations in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients in the Netherlands*

In this part of a series on cardiogenetic founder mutations in the Netherlands, we review the Dutch founder mutations in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients. HCM is a common autosomal dominant genetic disease affecting at least one in 500 persons in the general population. Worldwide, most mutations in HCM patients are identified in genes encoding sarcomeric proteins, mainly in the myosin-binding protein C gene (MYBPC3, OMIM #600958) and the beta myosin heavy chain gene (MYH7, OMIM #160760). In the Netherlands, the great majority of mutations occur in the MYBPC3, involving mainly three Dutch founder mutations in the MYBPC3 gene, the c.2373-2374insG, the c.2864-2865delCT and the c.2827C>T mutation. In this review, we describe the genetics of HCM, the genotype-phenotype relation of Dutch founder MYBPC3 gene mutations, the prevalence and the geographic distribution of the Dutch founder mutations, and the consequences for genetic counselling and testing. (Neth Heart J 2010;18:248-54.)