EDITORIAL
 

NOBEL PRIZE FOR
PROF VICTOR A. McKUSICK

In the summer of 1983, at the Jackson Laboratory in Maine while attending the two-week course of medical and experimental genetics organized by Johns Hopkins University and supported by the March of Dimes, I met the distinguished medical scientist James V. Neel who asked a group of senior professors attending the workshops "who they would nominate for the Nobel Prize if given the opportunity?" All of them responded without hesitation by saying that there was no medical scientist more deserving of this honor than Prof. Victor A. McKusick for his truly exceptional and unique contributions. He was considered by all the attendees as the person responsible for the evolution of medical genetics as a discipline and its popularization worldwide. Some mentioned that he was the main pillar in the triad of Darwin, Mendel, and McKusick.

During my two-month visit to the Kuwait Medical Genetics Center in March-April 2009, I was lucky to meet two international medical scientists Prof Michael Patton (UK) and Prof. Gabriele Gillessen-Kaesbach (Germany). It is difficult for me to forget three Bedouin families from the Jahra region of Kuwait with different heritable disorders, the first a male with a new facio-skeleto-genital syndrome with some similarities to Al-Awadi limb-pelvis/hypoplasia-aplasia syndrome, the second with Troyer Syndrome (whose gene studies were conducted by Dr. Laila Bastaki and Dr. Andrew Jackson in the UK), and the third was Greig Syndrome (reported by Dr. Makia Marafie and the distinguished syndromologist Prof. Samia Temtamy in the American Journal of Medical Genetics). Interestingly, all the doctors attending these scientific meetings considered McKusick's Online database OMIM to be an indispensible source for the latest information about these disorders. I felt that despite his passing, that Prof. McKusick was still in our presence through his timeless and eternal contribution to the field of medical genetics and counselling.

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)

Gregor Mendel (1822 – 1884)

Victor A. McKusick (1921-2008)

In this issue we pay our respects to this pillar of scientific innovation and the unforgettable father of medical genetics with a special supplement dedicated to his memory with contributions from some of his colleagues and students--Prof. Samia Temtamy, Prof. D.S. Borgoankar, and Dr. Hanan El-Bastawisy. We also invite all those who would like to share their experience with the late professor as we prepare a volume to memorialize his life and work, entitled "Victor A. McKusick and the Inbred Populations." While Prof. McKusick may have received many accolades and honors in his lifetime, one much deserved award alluded the man who changed the face of medical sciences. At this time, The Ambassadors Research Association calls upon the Nobel Foundation, to acknowledge his unforgettable contributions by bestowing on the late Prof. McKusick its first posthumous Nobel Prize. All visitors of the Ambassadors Magazine are invited to support this proposal and to send their view to the discussion forum and their articles to our email for publication in the next issue of the magazine. We also wish to extend our great respect and warm condolences to his widow Prof. Anne from the Rheumatology Department at Johns Hopkins University.

(photo: Dr. Mohammed El-Ghawaby)

www.ambassadors.net
mail@ambassadors.net