Obituaries

May 28, 2012

Dr. David Rimoin

Dr. David Rimoin, a pioneering physician and researcher in the field of medical genetics, died May 27, 2012 at the age of 76.

Dr. Rimoin succumbed after a private battle with pancreatic cancer.

Colleagues and friends, many of whom were not aware of his sudden diagnosis, reacted with shock.

We have lost a giant in the field of medicine, said an official statement from the Cedars Sinai board of directors. His medical contributions will continue to bring healing for generations.

Dr. Rimoin held the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Pediatrics and was Director of the Medical Genetics Institute at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. He was also Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Human Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. At Cedars, he conducted groundbreaking research into dwarfism and skeletal dysplasia. His 1970 demonstration that diabetes mellitus was the reflection of multiple genetic variants laid the foundation for the field of common disease genetics. His 1983 textbook, Emery and Rimoins Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics remains a classic in the field. Dr. Rimoin published over 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

David Rimoin was born in 1936 in Montreal, Canada. He earned his PhD from McGill Medical School in 1961, and received his PhD in human genetics in 1967 from Johns Hopkins.

In 1970 he arrived in LA, where he built the division of human genetics first at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, then at Cedars Sinai.

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Dr. David Rimoin, pioneering geneticist, dies at 76

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