Michael Lesch

Michael Lesch (June 30, 1939 – March 19, 2008) was an American physician and medical educator who helped identify an important genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability and self-mutilation. This disease is now known as the Lesch–Nyhan syndrome. In the mid-1960s when the syndrome was discovered, Lesch was a research associate working at the Laboratory of General and Comparative Biochemistry at the NIH National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. William Nyhan, a pediatrician and biochemical geneticist, was his mentor. Lesch was 30 years old when he discovered the disease.

Lesch completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins in the Osler Medical Service in 1964. While at Hopkins he earned the distinguished honor of president, Alpha Omega Alpha, The Johns Hopkins University Chapter.