University of Michigan. Molecular Medicine and Human Genetics Division.

Research in the field of human genetics at the University of Michigan dates from 1941 when a Hereditary Clinic was established under the direction of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Biology and the University Hospital. In 1956 the clinic underwent reorganization, resulting in the creation of the Department of Human Genetics, the oldest such department in the nation. In 1977 the Division of Medical Genetics was established within the Department of Internal Medicine, a move which greatly strengthened the ties in the Medical School between the basic science and clinical aspects of genetics. Human gene therapy is a more recent development, however, dating from 1984 when the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) established a unit at the University of Michigan. In the original application for this unit, Dr. William N. Kelley (b. 1939) identified gene transfer as one of the Unit's major goals.

A core of talented young genetic researchers were recruited to the faculty, including Dr. Thomas J. Palella (b. 1951), Dr. Francis S. Collins (b. 1950), Dr. Gary J. Nabel (b. 1953), and Dr. James M. Wilson (b. 1955). In 1987 Dr. Kelley was awarded the University of Michigan's first grant on gene therapy (Somatic Cell Human HPRT [an enzyme associated with Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome] Transfer) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The following year, Drs. Palella, Wilson, and Kelley published the first papers on gene therapy research by University of Michigan faculty members.

...