Primary Job Title Co-Founder Primary Organization 
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI)
Location Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Regions Asia-Pacific (APAC), Australasia Gender Male
David Danks founded the Murdoch Institute with the vision that genetics would one day become part of standard patient care.
David started his paediatric career at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). Although he was a much-loved doctor, mentor and teacher, it was clear David’s passion lay in research, specifically clinical genetics, which in the
1960’s had not yet found its way in to mainstream medicine.
Undeterred by the challenge of bringing the discipline to the fore, David received training in the United Kingdom and United States from the very best in the clinical genetics world and bought this valuable knowledge with him on his return to Melbourne. In 1967, he set up the Genetics Research Unit, a small research outfit based at RCH.
David, along with Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and other supporters, formally established the Murdoch Institute for Research into Birth Defects in 1986. He led the Institute as founding Director until his retirement almost a decade later.
David’s personal research achievements were also impressive. In a series of landmark papers published in the early 1970’s, David and his team showed that Menkes syndrome, a condition that can lead to brain damage, retarded growth and death, was a disease of copper absorption. He maintained his interest in the disease throughout his career and was one of a team that found the genetic cause of the condition.
