Victor McKusick and the History of Medical Genetics

This book is being planned as a tribute to Dr. Victor A. McKusick (1921-2008), who is well known as the “father of medical genetics”. He was long associated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, first as a student in the 1940s, and later as a faculty member, becoming the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. He was a co-founder of GENOMICS and founder and lifelong editor of __Mendelian Inheritance in Man__, a massive compendium of human syndromes and genetic variants. Dr. McKusick made distinguished contributions to all branches of medical genetics. He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and many other academies in the world. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2002. He received many other honors including several honorary doctorates. The proposed book will reflect all the fields touched upon by Dr. McKusick’s contributions. It will be a valuable source of the latest progress in medical genetics. The contributors are internationally distinguished in their chosen specialties. Besides professional distinction, they are being selected because of their past association with Dr. McKusick, as former students or colleagues who extended his research in some fashion. The proposed book will reflect all the fields touched upon by Dr. McKusick’s contributions. It will be a valuable source of the latest progress in medical genetics. The contributors are internationally distinguished in their chosen specialties. Besides professional distinction, they are being selected because of their past association with Dr. McKusick, as former students or colleagues who extended his research in some fashion. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Victor McKusick....Pages 1-14 Family Life and Victor’s Meeting the Unexpected....Pages 15-24 The McKusick Twins: A Personal Essay....Pages 25-33 Personal Recollections of Victor....Pages 35-38 Memories of Victor McKusick....Pages 39-40 Memories of the Moore Clinic, 1960–1965....Pages 41-52 Cytogenetics and Early Days at the Moore Clinic with Victor McKusick....Pages 53-66 Travels with Victor: Marfan Syndrome and Its Cousins....Pages 67-83 Homage for Victor McKusick....Pages 85-89 How Did My Association with Victor Influence Me, My Career, and My Family?....Pages 91-95 The Assimilation of Classical Genetics into Human Genetics....Pages 97-106 Genetic Studies in Isolated Populations: Victor McKusick’s Contributions to Population Genetics....Pages 107-117 Victor A. McKusick and Medical Genetics Among the Amish....Pages 119-130 Dr. Victor A. McKusick and the Genetics of Dwarfism....Pages 131-135 Clinical Genomicist in the Future of Medical Practice....Pages 137-143 Victor McKusick and the History of Medical Genetics....Pages 145-161 The Influence of Victor A. McKusick on the Development of Training in Medical Genetics in Europe and in the World....Pages 163-173 Back Matter....Pages 175-232 Victor McKusick is widely known as the 'Founding Father of Medical Genetics'. His seminal contributions to all aspects of medical genetics have led to the establishment of a distinct discipline. As a clinician, teacher, scientist, historian and author, McKusick's role is unparalleled. He was a founding member and the first President of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO). He performed an outstanding service by bringing genetics into the mainstream of medicine. This book is a tribute to Victor McKusick and the field of Medical genetics that he pioneered. It contains a number of fascinating personal accounts of people who knew, worked, and were influenced by him in the period from around 1950 until his death in 2007. Through this mechanism, the reader is given a unique insight into the history of medical genetics and how it will impact 21st century medicine. -- Dr. Hamilton O. Smith, Nobel Laureate