DR. HARRY A. WAISMAN                         University of Wisconsin
Professor of Pediatrics                      News and Publications Service
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Dr. Harry A. Waisman, professor of pediatrics and director of the Joseph
P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin Medical School,
has been concerned since 1956 with the study of mental retardation due to
"inborn errors" of metabolism.
Dr. Walsman's work centers on a long-term study of the biochemistry of mental
retardation. He hopes to gain an understanding of the chemical causes of mental
retardation and develop methods of prevention.
Working with hereditary diseases which produce mental retardation, he found
that In one such disease, phenylketonurla (PKU), affected children who are
diagnosed early enough can develop normally if put on a special diet.
In 1957 he initiated a treatment program throughout Wisconsin, and in 1963
a medical motion picture was produced under his direction to show physicians
how to spot PKU babies. Dr. Waisman and his group have also found other diseases
which produce mental retardation.
Prior to 1956, Dr. Waisman worked on cancer and leukemia in children. His
earlier studies, many done In collaboration with the late UW President, C. A.
Elvehjem, concerned vitamins and nutrition.
Dr. Walsman joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Medical School
In 1952 as an associate professor of pediatrics, coming from the University of
Illinois College of Medicine, where he had been assistant professor of pediatrics.
He holds four degrees from the University of Wisconsin. They are:
B.S., In organic chemistry, 1935; M.S. , biochemistry, 1937; Ph.D. biochemistry,
1939; and M.D., 1947. He served his internship In 1948 at the Research and
Educational Hospitals, University of Illinois, and his residency, 1948-1950, at
the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
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