Deborah C. Rubin, M.D., has been named director of the Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine Program (M.A./M.D.) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Rubin’s appointment, effective Sept. 1, was announced by Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and executive vice chancellor for medical affairs.
The M.A./M.D. Program provides one year of individual, full-time, in-depth research experience for medical students. Participants take a year away from traditional medical school classes to work on basic biomedical research or hypothesis-driven clinical research in the lab of a faculty member. Students completing the program graduate with a combined masters and medical degree. Some participants in the program have chosen to extend their research experience by transferring to the M.D./Ph.D. program and many have elected to pursue careers in academic medicine as a result of their experience.
Rubin, professor of medicine and of molecular biology and pharmacology, is not new to the M.A./M.D. Program, having served as a committee member for 10 years. In addition, she is active on several other University committees. She is secretary of the executive committee to the Faculty Council and previously served as a clinical representative, and she is vice-chair of the research advisory committee in the General Clinical Research Center. Rubin also is director of the morphology core of the Digestive Diseases Research Core Center.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with students in this new capacity,” said Rubin. “The individualized nature of this program allows us to work closely with each participant to help them identify their strengths in the lab and further the University’s commitment to translate what we learn in the lab to effective treatment for patients.”
Rubin’s responsibilities will include meeting with each program applicant and overseeing the process by which students are accepted and then matched with appropriate laboratories.
Rubin’s commitment to mentoring has been evident throughout her career at Washington University. For the past several years, she has invited qualified high school and college students to work in her lab during the summers, and she has been the course master of the GI and liver pathophysiology and nutrition course since 2000. In addition, she was involved in creating a mentor program when she served as the chair of the Committee on Women in Gastroenterology of the American Gastroenterological Association.
Rubin is a sought-after lecturer, having traveled around the world to present her research. She is active in numerous national organizations, currently serving as vice-chair in the Section on Nutrition and Obesity for the American Gastroenterological Association, and as an elected councilor on the steering committee of the American Physiological Society, Gastrointestinal and Liver Section. She also serves as a member of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases special grants review committee and a member of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America research training awards review committee.
Rubin’s research interests include studying how the intestine adapts to loss of small bowel function due to diseases such as Crohn’s disease or following surgical resection and gastrointestinal structure and function, focusing on epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, which are crucial for normal gut morphogenesis. Her research is supported by multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health. She is also the author of numerous scientific publications.
The M.A./M.D. program advances the objectives of the University’s BioMed 21 initiative. Announced in 2003, BioMed 21 is dedicated to moving knowledge from the laboratory to the patient’s bedside and finding ways to increase communication between clinicians and researchers.
Daniel P. Kelly, M.D., who has served as director since 2001, remains on the faculty as Alumni Endowed Professor of Medicine and is devoting more time to a new translational research enterprise that he directs focused on identifying better treatments for diabetic cardio-vascular disease, one of several programs funded by the NIH Roadmap Initiative.
Washington University School of Medicine is recognized as one of the leading research institutions in the world. In addition to the M.A./M.D. program, the University offers the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), the nation’s largest M.D./Ph.D. combined degree program, training physician scientists from bench to bedside.
Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked third in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.