Victor McKusick and the History of Medical Genetics

ISBN-13: 9781461416760 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 234 str.

Krishna R. Dronamraju; David Valle; Aravinda Chakravarti

Opis

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.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements.- Foreword.- Introduction.- Memories.- McKusick Twins.- Victor McKusick and Recollections.- Memories of Victor McKusick.- Memoirs of Moore Clinic.- Cytogenetics and Early Days at the Moore Clinic.- Travels with Victor.- Homage for Victor McKusick.- How did my association with Victor influence me, my career, my family.- The Assimilation of Classical Genetics into Human Genetics.- Genetic Studies in Isolated Populations.- Victor A. McKusick and Medical Genetics Among the Amish.- Dr. Victor A.  McKusick and the Genetics of Dwarfism.- Clinical Genomicist in the Future of Medical Practice.- Victor McKusick and the History of Medical Genetics.- The influence of  Victor A. McKusick on the development  of training in Medical Genetics.- Appendices.- Index.

Blurb

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 21^st century medicine.

                                                           -- Dr. Hamilton O. Smith, Nobel Laureate