The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (HSC)
For our August 2022 Customer of the Month, GenTech selected a long-time customer, and one of our favorites to work with, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (HSC).
GenTech CCO Yvette Pagano covered a lot of ground in a very interesting interview with Laszlo Prokai, Ph.D., D.Sc. Recruited to HSC in 2005, Dr. Prokai wears many hats, including professor of pharmacology and neuroscience, researcher, laboratory director and the Robert A. Welch Chair in Biochemistry. Recognized both nationally and internationally for his work, his current research focuses include aging research, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. See Dr. Prokai’s Biographical Sketch on the HSC School of Biomedical Sciences’s website.
A bit of history
Dr. Prokai offered a succinct overview of HSC from its start more than 50 years ago as the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM)1, to its growth to five schools, one being the School of Biomedical Sciences to which the Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Laboratory belongs as part of the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience. TCOM became known as The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth (HSC) in 1993 after the college expanded to become a graduate university with multiple colleges. In March, TCOM was ranked the nation’s top osteopathic medical school for primary care by U.S. News and World Report. This is the second time in the last three years the university earned this ranking.
Meet “the real Laszlo”
Through the course of the conversation, we get to know a bit about “the real Laszlo,” as we like to say in advance of our just-for-fun Lightning Round (21:25). In a separate segment that doesn’t appear in the full video, Dr. Prokai answered our questions about his career path, from an analytical chemist/mass spectrometrist in Hungary to his current position as professor, researcher, lab director, and Welch Chair in Biochemistry at HSC. We also asked, “What is your passion as a scientist?” (2:22), we learned a bit about his partner in work and life (19:32) and offered congratulations on the birth of their first grandchild (20:53). We also asked about his lab and “workhorse” instruments (5:50)2, and what advice he might have for others in a similar role (15:47). Dr. Prokai even shared his favorite quote: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” (Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night)
Would you recommend GenTech?
Naturally, some of our favorite topics involve asking questions such as:
- “What circumstances first led you to GenTech?” (9:01) and
- “What’s your favorite thing about working with GenTech?” (13:50)
For the answers to these questions and more, watch the full interview below!
We hope viewers enjoy the conversation with Dr. Prokai as much as we do. GenTech is pleased to feature The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth as our August 2022 Customer of the Month. Dr. Prokai has been a great customer for the past 21 years, and HSC for the past decade or so. We salute the important contributions of HSC to medicine and to the larger scientific community.
1 HSC celebrated the 50th Anniversary of its founding in 2020.
2 Learn more about Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1535947620302000
