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Dr. Victor McKusick, a key architect of the Human Genome Project and a winner of the National Medal of Science, has died of cancer at age 86 in Towson, Md. McKusick, whose work explored the links between genetics and disease, won the top U.S. scientific prize in 2001. McKusick founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Medical Genetics in 1957 and in 1973 became physician-in-chief of Johns Hopkins Hospital. McKusick was one of the first to propose the human genome map, in 1969.

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