David M. Danks

David Miles Danks (4 June 1931 – 8 July 2003) was a paediatrician, medical researcher and is considered the founder of medical genetics in Australia.

Inspired to know 'why a disease had occurred' and 'how it could be anticipated and prevented', Danks trained with pioneers of human genetics in London and Baltimore from 1959. At that time, human genetics was scarcely known in Australia.

He identified the cause of Menkes disease in 1972 and made breakthroughs in PKU testing. Danks was appointed Professor of Paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne in 1974.

Professor Danks established the Murdoch Institute for Research into Birth Defects together with Dame Elisabeth Murdoch DBE AC, where he could fully implement his vision of unfettered basic scientific research wedded to clinical practice and services to public health. He applied his entrepreneurial flair to the development of a brilliant multi-disciplinary research team focussed on the identification of genetic diseases affecting newborns and their treatment in the clinic.