HENRY J. KNOTT was a builder and outstanding developer whose companies constructed thousands of homes and businesses in Baltimore. A longtime hospital trustee, he was awarded an honorary degree in 1986. With his wife, MARION I. KNOTT, he made contributions to cultural institutions in the Baltimore region in excess of $300 million prior to his death in 1995. In a 1987 Baltimore Magazine profile, Mr. Knott discussed his motivations for giving away so much of his wealth: “It’s like catching fish,” he said. “You get up early. You fill the boat with fish, and then you give them away before they start to rot.”
Marion Knott pledged to endow a directorship and professorship in oncology at Johns Hopkins at the same time she created this chair and directorship of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine. She and her husband encouraged their 13 children to become active in civic life and philanthropy. (Henry and Marion Knott, seated, are pictured with their children.)
Held by David Valle
DAVID VALLE, the Henry J. Knott Professor and Director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, is also director of Hopkins’ Center for Inherited Disease Research and the Predoctoral Training Program in Human Genetics. He is a professor of Pediatrics with joint appointments in Molecular Biology & Genetics, Biology, and Ophthalmology. He is a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past president of the Society of Inherited Metabolic Disorders (1987-1988) and of the American Society of Human Genetics (2003-2004). His research interests include clinical, biochemical, molecular, and therapeutic aspects of human genetic disease. In particular, he has been involved in the clinical characterization, gene identification and treatment for several inborn errors of metabolism and defects in peroxisome biogenesis and function. Currently, his lab is focusing on elucidating the genetic basis of neuropsychiatric disease such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He is the senior editor of The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, now it its 8th edition. Dr. Valle has published nearly 200 papers in reviewed journals, and contributed close to 40 book chapters.