For the better part of a decade, a forward-looking partnership between the Miller School of Medicine and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation has led to advances in the fields of genetics and preventive health care for working-class Florida communities.

This innovative alliance entered an exciting new phase in February, with a disclosure that $2 million had been contributed to establish an endowed chair known as the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genomics. The chair will initially be held by the director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics (MIHG), Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.

In addition, a Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics and Genomic Medicine has been unveiled. The new department will be headed by geneticist Jeffery Vance, M.D., Ph.D., who directs MIHG’s Center for Genomic Medicine.

“Our relationship with the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation is one of the Miller School’s most treasured philanthropic liaisons,” says Pascal J.Goldschmidt, M.D., Miller School senior vice president for medical affairs and dean. “The Miller School has become an international leader in genetics research, and the foundation’s early support played an invaluable role in that transformation.”

The linkage between the foundation and the Miller School began in August 2000, with an announcement the foundation was awarding $12.5 million in grants to the school.

When unveiled it was the largest commitment in the history of the foundation, which was established to honor John Tremper Macdonald, M.D., a dedicated surgeon and gynecologist who co-founded Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables and died in 1951 at the age of 66.

When the $12.5 million grant to the Miller School was made public, the foundation’s then-chairman, George Mekras, M.D., proclaimed that he “wanted to make a profound statement” by entering into a fruitful new symbiosis with the Miller School.

Fifty percent of the award, or $6.25 million, was earmarked to create the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Center for Medical Genetics at the Miller School. The center represented one of the earliest genetics initiatives at a U.S. university following the completion of the Human Genome Project’s first draft the previous year.

Armed with the foundation’s generous gift, former Miller School Dean John Clarkson, M.D., scoured the country in search of an acclaimed medical geneticist capable of leading the new center.

His search ended in Atlanta, where Louis J. Elsas, M.D., was running a highly respected medical genetics program at Emory University. Under his direction, first-year Miller School students started receiving instruction in medical genetics, including classes in genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology. Elsas also established a four-year medical genetics major at the school.

The foundation’s grant also made possible the recruitment of research faculty with expertise in clinical and basic sciences and facilitated the purchase of essential laboratory equipment and supplies.

The other half of the foundation’s $12.5 million gift was used to establish the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation School Health Initiative, which provides basic health care and psychosocial services for children from kindergarten through high school in North Miami Beach.

Working in concert with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Miami-Dade County Health Department, the foundation and the Miller School deliver wellness education and health care support services at five schools in a feeder pattern: Greynolds Park Elementary, Fulford Elementary, G.K. Edelman/Sabal Palm Elementary, John F. Kennedy Middle School, and North Miami Beach Senior High.

In 2004 the Miller School was again the beneficiary of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation’s largesse, in the form of a $5 million grant used to establish a diagnostic genetics laboratory.

The medical school’s expertise in the field of genetics was further enhanced in 2007 with the recruitment of the Vances. The husband-and-wife scientists opened MIHG last year following more than two decades of groundbreaking research at Duke University. Their efforts will be augmented by the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics and Genomic Medicine and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genomics endowed chair.

“We’re excited about the latest developments in our relationship with the Miller School of Medicine, particularly the formation of a department carrying our name,” says Kim Greene, CEO of the foundation. “We felt we’d given the medical school seed money to build a world-class genetics initiative, and it’s gratifying to see that happening.

“Our best dreams are coming true, and we’re delighted about that,” Greene continues. “This is a great coup for the Miller School, for the community of Miami, and for us as well. It’s a win-win all the way around.”

The Miller School is “indebted to the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation for the initiatives they’ve established with our medical school,” says Marsha Kegley, associate vice president for medical development. “Our treasured partnership with the foundation amply demonstrates what the Miller School can accomplish when endowed with visionary philanthropy.”