Retirement
Dr. Elizabeth Ives
During her career as a clinical geneticist, Dr. Elizabeth Ives has seen an explosive growth in the field -- from the discovery of the correct number of human chromosomes in 1956 to the current ability to map and characterize genes themselves.
For the past 10 years, Dr. Ives has been in charge of Newfoundland's
provincial genetics program. She came here from the University of Alberta, where she had
headed up a similar program. But when she graduated from medical school in Glasgow in
1956, it would have been hard to imagine the developments that would take place in the
then-infant field of genetics.
As a young pediatrician with specialty training in public health, Dr. Ives left Great Britain for Canada, where she worked as a medical health officer in Saskatchewan before attending the University of Saskatchewan to finish speciality training in pediatrics. That's where her interest in genetics was piqued by Dr. John Gerard, one of the pioneers involved in dietary management of the genetic condition of phenylketonuria.
"I became more and more interested in genetics, and after attending a summer institute in Maine run by Dr. Victor McKusick, I was awarded a fellowship at the University of Michigan, one of the few universities with a Department of Human Genetics."
Dr. Ives said in the early days of genetics, available tests could only identify certain abnormalities such as Down Syndrome where there is an extra chromosome. "It was amazing how little we had to offer -- all you could tell people was the pattern of inheritance in families. There was no prospect of testing people for genes like we do now."
After a year at the University of Michigan, Dr. Ives returned to the University of Saskatchewan to set up a genetic counselling clinic. She also took on the responsibility of chairing the pediatric department, and after eight years decided the administrative responsibilities were detracting from her work in genetics. So she eventually moved on to Edmonton and then to St. John's to work more directly in her field.
"The appeal of coming to Newfoundland was because the population is genetically very interesting with large families and isolated communities."
Dr. Ives has enjoyed her 10 years in the province, and is continuing to work past her actual retirement on a research grant to study families with genetic neurological diseases. That study, now in its second year, will keep her in the province at least part of the time for the next year although her new home is in Victoria, B.C. Once settled on the west coast, she plans to keep active through part-time clinical work.
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