Arno Motulsky

Arno Motulsky (born 1923) is a professor of medical genetics and genome sciences at the University of Washington. He is known as the "father of pharmacogenomics", based on his report in 1957 of negative drug responses in some patients depending on their genetics at critical enzymes.^[1][2]

Born in Fischhausen near Königsberg, East Prussia to Jewish parents, he fled Nazi Germany in 1939 aboard the MS St. Louis but was rejected by US officials. Motulsky returned to Europe, initially settling in Brussels, Belgium, where he witnessed the German attack in 1940 and was confined as an enemy alien (i.e. German citizen) by Belgian authorities. Deported to St. Cyprien and the Gurs internment camp in southern France Motulsky finally managed to flee via Lisbon to the United States, where he arrived in 1941.^[2] He attended Yale University as part of the U.S. Army accelerated program and earned his M.D from University of Illinois, Chicago and did his residency with Karl Singer at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago where he did hematology research. In 1953, he joined the faculty of the University of Washington, where he established the Division of Medical Genetics in 1957.

An autobiographical article details his scientific achievements.^[3]

Motulsky is coauthor and editor of a major text of human genetics, Vogel and Motulsky's Human Genetics: Problems and Approaches.^[4]

References