Dr. Charles Epstein, a prominent medical geneticist who in 1993 was seriously injured in an attack by the Unabomber but was later able to continue his research on Down syndrome and other genetic conditions, died Feb. 15 at his home in Tiburon, Calif. He was 77.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his wife, Lois, a physician and cancer researcher who sometimes collaborated with her husband.

A medical doctor, Epstein (pronounced EP-styne) was widely credited with helping to make medical genetics — an extremely new field when he began his career — an accredited medical subspecialty.

At his death he was emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, where he had taught for more than 40 years.

Epstein was best known for his work on Down syndrome, a chromosomal condition that affects roughly 1 in 700 newborns.