Draft:John Butler Mulliken

John Butler Mulliken, MD



John Butler Mulliken is a professor of plastic surgery at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital who is known for his expertise in the fields of vascular anomalies and cleft lip and palate. Through his clinical and research endeavors, he has impacted a multitude of patients worldwide. Dr. Mulliken currently serves as the Director of the Craniofacial Centre and Co-Director of the Vascular Anomalies Center at Boston Children's Hospital.

Early life
Born in Chicago in 1938 to John R. Mulliken and Mary Jane Seifert; his father was a regional sales manager for General Mills Co. His paternal grandparents, John H. Mulliken and Sarah Butler Mulliken lived in Minneapolis; his grandfather served on the board of directors of the Washburn-Crosby Co. (later General Mills). His paternal forebears were prominent 18th-19th century clock-makers in Massachusetts. His maternal grandparents were Dr. Otto H. Seifert, an oral surgeon, and Bertha Seifert of Springfield, Illinois. At the age of 2 years, his family moved to Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis and he graduated from Edina High School in 1956, and was captain of the tennis team. He went to Princeton University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry, graduating magna cum laude in 1960. He received a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1964. From 1964 to 1970, he trained in general surgery and was a research fellow in developmental biology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Career
Mulliken spent two years in Korea, serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, the second year during the Vietnam conflict, as Commander of the 43rd Surgical Hospital (the last MASH unit). He completed residency in plastic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1974 and returned to Boston to become Dr. Joseph E. Murray's first associate at the Boston Children's Hospital and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (later Brigham and Women's Hospital). In 1990, Dr. Murray was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for organ transplantation. As a pediatric plastic surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, he focused on craniofacial deformities and cleft lip/palate repair and developed a major interest in vascular anomalies. Active in medical research, collaborations with colleagues in molecular genetics led to the discovery of the germline mutations that caused multiple genetic disorders, including Boston-type craniosynostosis (MSX2), cleidocranial dysplasia (CBFA1), craniometaphyseal dysplasia (ANK), cutaneo-mucosal venous malformations (TIE-2), glomuvenous malformations (Glomulin), and capillary-malformation-arteriovenous malformation (RASA1). In addition, he aided in the discovery of somatic mutations in vascular anomalies with overgrowth (PIK3A) and in congenital hemangiomas (GNAQ, GNA11). Mulliken is author/co-author of over 500 original papers and 57 book chapters.

Work in Vascular Anomalies
In 1976, Mulliken, and his colleague Anthony Young, founded the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies (ISSVA) in Boston. The society was officially registered in 1992. Dr. Mulliken pioneered the field of vascular anomalies. Previously obscured by contradicting classification systems and terminology, Mulliken clarified and brought into existence the modern field of vascular anomalies, starting with a landmark article in 1982 proposing a biologic classification of vascular birthmarks into tumors and malformations. The paper remains one of the most frequently cited articles in the plastic surgical literature. This conceptual breakthrough provided the basis of the widely-accepted classification of vascular anomalies adopted by the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies (ISSVA), widely referred to as the "Mulliken classification". In 1988, he co-authored the classic textbook on this subject, Mulliken and Young's Vascular Anomalies: Hemangiomas and Malformation. An expanded second edition was published in 2013. At Boston Children's Hospital, he established the Vascular Anomalies Center, an enduring interdisciplinary team. In his medical research, his collaborative work led to description of several distinct clinical vascular disorders and the genetic mutations underlying them. In recognition of his accomplishments, ISSVA designated the John Mulliken Award for Best Scientific Paper given at the biennial meeting.

Work in cleft lip and palate
Mulliken devised a one-stage repair of bilateral complete cleft lip and nasal deformity and applied direct anthropometry to document and analyze cleft lip and other craniofacial disorders.

Awards

 * Honorary doctorate degree from Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels (1998)
 * Distinguished Fellow, American Association of Plastic Surgeons (2007)
 * The ROFEH International Award, New England Chassidic Center (2008)
 * Festschrift to honor John B. Mulliken, MD (2008)
 * Honorary Fellow, the Royal College of Surgeons, England (2014)
 * Clinician of the Year, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Section on Plastic Surgery (2015)
 * Lifetime Achievement, National Physician of the Year Award by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd (2015)

Personal life
John married A. Portia Chiou, a plastic surgeon. They have a daughter named Olivia Angelica.