About the Author

As a young child, I spent many months as a patient in the Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. A dedicated physician eventually found a solution to my health problem. This experience inspired me to pursue a career in medicine, and I graduated as a physician from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The fields of genetics and biochemistry held great fascination for me, and I pursued these as a graduate student at University College London. I have had the privilege of participating in the clinical genetic services at the Children’s Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and in the Pediatrics department at the University of California, Irvine.

I also have been fortunate enough to be able to carry out research in gene mapping, gene isolation, and gene and enzyme analyses, and more recently in analysis of genetic factors in the etiology of autism.