History of Medical Genetics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Wake Forest University School of Medicine (formerly Bowman Gray School of Medicine) was founded in 1902 as a two-year medical school on the campus of Wake Forest College, Wake Forest NC. In 1941 the medical school expanded to a four year program and moved to Winston-Salem. With the formation of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, the first Department of Medical Genetics in the nation was established. Dr. William Allan would become the department’s first chairman. Prior to this time, Dr. Allan was in private practice in Charlotte NC where he was nationally recognized for his early work in human/medical genetics. As Chairman, Dr. Allan also headed up the nation’s first research program in medical genetics to be funded by the Carnegie Foundation.
No one other than its new director, Dr. William Allan, had any idea how important genetics could become. Dr. Allan was one of the pioneers in genetics and was possibly one of the most visionary members of the early genetics community. He wrote his first study in 1916 about the genetics of migraines. By the end of his life, he had written or co-written 93 papers. Dr. Allan was convinced that hereditary diseases could be conquered by prevention, much like some infectious. Dr. Allan recognized how desperate some people were to prevent hereditary diseases from being passed down. During his lifetime, he answered hundreds of letters from people with questions about genetics. Some individuals wanted to know if they could marry first or third cousins; others wanted to know if asthma should prevent them from having a child. The letters came from as close by as Greensboro and as far away as New Mexico, and Allan answered them all.
Dr. Allan died in 1943 and was succeeded in this position by Dr. C. Nash Herndon. Both Allan and Herndon are considered early leaders and pioneers in medical genetics. Their early work lay down the foundations of genetic counseling and the formation of the American Society of Human Genetics as well as the American Journal of Human Genetics. Dr. Allan’s contributions to medical genetics are recognized each year by the American Society of Human Genetics with the presentation of the Allan Award to the most outstanding contributor in the file of genetics, several of whom have gone on to win Nobel prizes. There is also recognized the Allan-Herndon syndrome based on one of their original family studies on metal retardation.
The first funded professorship at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine was established in the Department of Medical Genetics in 1953 by the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1953, Harold O. Goodman became the first fellow in Medical Genetics. In 1957, the Department of Medical Genetics was divided into two separate groups: The Department of Preventative Medicine headed by Dr. C. Nash Herndon and the Section on Medical Genetics headed by Dr. Harold O. Goodman. Since that time, Medical Genetics has been an independent section within the Department of Pediatrics. In 1964, Dr. Goodman established the first cytogenetic and biochemical genetic laboratories in North Carolina. HO, as he was affectionately known as, helped establish the North Carolina genetic laboratories of the University of North Carolina, Duke, Charlotte, Western North Carolina and East Carolina University. He also served as the Dean of Graduate Studies at Wake Forest University of Medicine.
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Dr. William Allan
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Dr. Nash Herndon
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Dr. H. O. Goodman
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