Professor Rodney Harris CBE, Born 27 May 1932, died 7th December 2017 aged 85 years

Prof Rodney Harris died peacefully amongst his family on Thursday 7th December 2017 aged 85 years. He was one of a pioneering few architects of modern medical genetics and was honoured with a CBE for his contribution.

Professor Rodney Harris was born in Liverpool in 1932 and went to school in Donald Road, he was evacuated during WWII to Queensferry in North Wales to avoid the bombing but still had the roof blown off his house. Then moving further West to Penmaenmawr he was educated at John Bright grammar school where he was inspired by a botany mistress and a biology master who he described

as ‘inspirational’. He started higher education at Liverpool Dental School and then switched after three years to Medicine having obtained a first class Honours Degree [ class 1 division1] an intercalated BSc in anatomy, where he got his first real taste of genetics. After spending time around Liverpool at the Southern, Broad Green and Liverpool Royal Infirmary he went to Paris to work with Jean Dausset on HLA typing one of the earliest markers used to identify hereditary disease. He then obtained a Darwin Research Fellowship from the Eugenics Society to work in South West Africa. He also worked in the Niger Delta on Glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency obtaining a doctorate in Medicine (MD). On returning to Liverpool as a Senior House officer at

Broad Green he obtained is membership of the Royal College of Physicians then working as a Registrar at the Southern and then Senior Registrar at the Northern. Having returned to work on HLA as a lecturer in Liverpool he replaced Alan Emery in Manchester in 1968 as a reader in genetics. The initial remit was to establish a tissue typing lab for the new transplantation facility using HLA. Rodney built up Medical Genetics in Manchester essentially from scratch starting with just one counselling clinic per week. By the mid-1970s there were tissue typing and cytogenetic laboratories and two nurse-counsellors. Clinical and laboratory genetics was substantially boosted in 1977 by appointing Dian Donnai and Andrew Read and genetic counselling by the appointment of Lauren Kerzin-Storrar.

“Medical Genetics loses a ‘giant’ from its formative years”

Rodney was a formidably adept politician, and from an early stage he built a strong relationship with the Department of Health eventually becoming Consultant Adviser. He attributed this success to his ability to communicate with NHS managers. This influence at the heart of the NHS brought about huge change and increased the impact of medical genetics nationally. The development of integrated Regional Genetics centres with clinicians, scientists and counsellors all working under the ‘same roof’ owed a very great deal to Rodney’s vision and ability to make things happen. In 1985 he spent some time with Prof Robert Williamson (now in Melbourne Australia) who was working on identifying the gene for cystic fibrosis. He was then able to use his influence to ensure that DNA laboratories were even further integrated into Medical Genetics. The Manchester DNA lab being boosted by the appointment of Rob Elles to the service lab and Tom Strachan to the research

laboratory. In the mid 1980’s Rodney also championed the use of ‘genetic registers’ to ensure cascading of genetic information and testing across families with a number of genetic disorders. This included a register for Huntington’s disease run by David Craufurd. These registers have since been shown by Gareth Evans to improve life expectancy in a number of cancer prone disorders. During this time he also became chairman of the influential Royal College Committee on Medical Genetics. He then went on to set up the Confidential Enquiries into medical genetics in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. These focussed on a number of conditions including Down’s syndrome, neural tube defects, multiple endocrine neoplasia Type 2A, cystic fibrosis and beta thalassaemia. In his later years he used his great influence in the European arena to help build medical genetics across Europe with a number of EU grants in the 1990’s producing the Concerted Action on Genetic Services in Europe, a comparative study in 31 European countries. The 1980s and 1990s were exciting times in Medical Genetics, and Rodney worked tirelessly through these years to strengthen his department’s ability to deliver the new developments in research and service. Rodney retired in 1997 at the age of 65. He devoted a great deal of time and energy to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People acting as a trustee for 6 years until 2006 having struggled with profound deafness himself for most of his life. He leaves his devoted wife Hilary who worked for many years with him in genetics, as well as their three children Alexandra, Richard and Anne.