GENETICS AND OTOLARYNGOLOGY SOURCE: Grand Rounds Presentation,
UTMB, Dept. of Otolaryngology DATE: October 13, 1999 RESIDENT
PHYSICIAN: Michael Prater, M.D. FACULTY PHYSICIAN: Shawn
Newlands, M.D. SERIES EDITOR: Francis B. Quinn, Jr., M.D.
|Return to Grand Rounds Index| Genetics is a diverse subject
concerned with variation in living organisms. Medical genetics
is concerned with human genetic variation of medical
significance, and one of the foremost aims of medical genetics
is to understand the basis for mutations and genetic disease and
to use that information to improve treatment. Within medical
genetics there are numerous areas of interest, each of which is
progressing rapidly. Major areas of specialization include, but
are by no means limited to: History of Medical Genetics Genetics
in medicine did not always occupy such a place of prominence.
Although now fully recognized, prior to Mendel’s principles of
heredity in 1865, inheritance was considered an insignificant
part of the life process. Mendel’s law