Uta Francke is a German-American physician-geneticist known for her accomplishments in mapping genes to specific chromosome locations and discovering the genes and underlying mutations responsible for Prader-Willi and Rett syndromes.
Her father, who had a law degree, fought for Germany in World War II, and her mother was an elementary school teacher.
Francke's father died from what was assumed as a heart attack at age 46, when she was 12 years old.
[3] Francke became interested in medicine after high school and eventually graduated from University of Munich in 1967 with a M.D.
In 1999, she co-discovered the gene for Rett syndrome, an autism-like disorder that is one of the most common causes of developmental mental disability among girls.