Symposium on X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy and Adrenomyeloneuropathy –
In Memoriam Dr. Hugo Wolfgang Moser (1924 – 2007)
February 6th – 8th, 2008
On the first anniversary of his death, January 20th 2008, The Massachusetts General Hospital wants to pay tribute to Dr. Hugo Moser who contributed greatly to the field of neurogenetics as a whole and the peroxisomal disorders in particular.
Dr. Moser spent his formative years in Boston, first in clinical training under Dr. Ray Adams and in the research laboratories of the neurochemist Jordi Folch-Pi and Marjorie Lees at McLean Hospital. He became interested in and received funding to study inherited diseases of the nervous system, mainly metachromatic Leukodystrophy and Farber disease. In 1964 he returned to the Joseph P. Kennedy research laboratories at MGH, and with Mary Efron and her junior faculty staff, Harvey Levy and Vivian Shih, he started screening programs for amino acid disorders and lysosomal disorders.
During this time he and other neurologists training with Dr. Ray Adams had weekly rounds at the Fernald State School in Waltham. He became interested in providing better services for persons with developmental and physical disabilities and was appointed research director and later superintendent of the Fernald State School in Waltham. While at Fernald, he applied for public funds that founded the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for research and training in mental retardation and became the director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center.
At MGH, the Shriver Center and Fernald he established a model of a close link between clinical practice, training and community services for the developmentally disabled and bench research. During this time he advanced academically at Harvard and became professor of Neurology at the MGH.
In 1976 he accepted the position of president of the Kennedy Krieger Institute and professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. At the Kennedy Krieger Institute he established the diagnostic testing for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, contributed to the discovery of the gene for X-ALD, defined several other peroxisomal disorders.
The community at Massachusetts General Hospital is indebted to his stamina and foresight and acknowledges his legacy in organizing a symposium on X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy.
Florian Eichler, MD
Robert H. Brown, MD, D Phil