Victor McKusick
| Victor Almon McKusick | |
|---|---|
Victor McKusick
|
|
| Born |
October 21, 1921 Parkman, Maine |
| Died | July 22, 2008 (aged 86) Towson, Maryland |
| Alma mater | Johns Hopkins University |
| Known for | Mendelian Inheritance in Man, OMIM and McKusick–Kaufman syndrome |
| Notable awards |
William Allan Award (1977) Lasker Award (1997) Japan Prize (2008) |
Victor Almon McKusick (October 21, 1921 – July 22, 2008) was an American internist and medical geneticist, and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He was a proponent of the mapping of the human genome due to its use for studying congenital diseases. He is well known for his studies of the Amish and, what he called, "little people". He was the original author and, until his death, remained chief editor of Mendelian Inheritance in Man (MIM) and its online counterpart Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM). He is widely known as the "father of medical genetics".
Victor and his identical twin Vincent L. McKusick were born on October 21, 1921. Victor was one of five children. His father was a graduate of Bates College. Before deciding to work as a dairy farmer, Victor's father served as a high school principal in Chester, Vermont. Victor's mother had been an elementary school teacher before marrying. Victor and his siblings were raised on a dairy farm in Parkman, Maine.
During the summer of 1937, Victor suffered a severe microaerophilic infection in his axilla. As a result, Victor spent time in two hospitals, one of which was Massachusetts General Hospital. He finally saw a successful diagnosis and course of treatment, using sulfanilamide during his ten weeks at Massachusetts General. Since none of his close family were doctors, the events of 1937 represented McKusick's first substantial experience with the medical community. He stated, "Perhaps I would have ended up a lawyer if it weren't for the microaerophilic streptococcus."
Victor married Anne Bishop McKusick in 1949. Anne served Johns Hopkins Hospital as Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology. The couple had two sons, Victor and Kenneth, and a daughter, Carol.
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