2013 William Allan Award: My multifactorial journey.

I want to begin by expressing my sincerest appreciation to The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) for this wonderful recognition and award; Vivian Cheung, Evan Eichler, and Stanislas Lyonnet for their nominations; and Evan Eichler for his very kind introduction. I want to thank each of you who are here today and particularly my wife and my daughters, who seldom get to hear what I have been up to. I have been a member of ASHG since 1975, have been attending its meetings since 1977, and have, over the years, seen and heard the very best of our scientists and clinicians receive this honor. I am both surprised and delighted to stand beside them and hope to convince you, over the next 30 min, of my laboratory’s deep fascination with human genetics. I do not stand here either alone or unassisted. I am the product of mentorship by many individuals, first while