McKusick’s database MIM has grown since its early beginning in sixties to 1985 when the online version (OMIM) appeared. The last edition of three volumes was printed in 1998. It has become a very valuable tool for all geneticists, and also clinicians of other disciplines started using it as a source of important information. The original limitation to disorders with mendelian inheritance has been step by step broken down, all components of human genome and also genes without known function and their epigenetic changes have been included. It was a pleasure for all of us to congratulate to McKusick’s honorary degree obtained this year by the oldest European university in Bologna (with a short biography).

        Key words: database of genetic disorders, Mendelian inheritance, autosomal dominant and recessive inheritance, X and Y chromosomal and mitochondrial inheritance, mitochondrial inheritance.