- McKusick, Victor Almon
-
▪ 2009American physician and genome researcherborn Oct. 21, 1921, Parkman, Mainedied July 22, 2008, Baltimore, Md.was a pioneer in the study of medical genetics, founding president (1988–91) of HUGO (the Human Genome Organisation), and the creator of the multivolume reference work Mendelian Inheritance in Man (12 editions, 1966–98) and its Internet corollary (from 1987), the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM). McKusick attended (1940–43) Tufts University, Medford, Mass., before transferring to train as a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He specialized in the study and treatment of heart murmurs. He published the influential textbook Cardiovascular Sound in Health and Disease (1958), but a heart patient whose condition was related to rare inherited diseases triggered his switch to genetics. In 1957 he founded the first medical genetics clinic at Johns Hopkins, where he remained as chairman of the department of medicine (from 1973) and professor of medical genetics (1985–2007). McKusick's most significant research included identifying the gene that causes Marfan syndrome and pinpointing the genetic basis for a form of dwarfism known as McKusick-Kaufman syndrome, which is unusually common among the Amish people. His numerous honours include the Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science (1997), Canada's Gairdner Award (1977), the U.S. National Medal of Science (2001), and the Japan Prize in Medical Genetics and Genomics (2008).
* * *
Universalium. 2010.