Louis M. Kunkel

views updated

Louis M. Kunkel

Physician who in the mid- and late-1980s made a number of discoveries pertaining to the genetics and mechanisms by which Duchenne muscular dystrophy works. In successive years, Kunkel and his collaborators began to understand the genetic basis for this often-fatal disease. From that start, they were able to determine that the absence of the protein dystrophin helps to cause the disease and to develop an early screening test to identify persons at risk.

More From encyclopedia.com