Gerald W. Dorn II, M.D., has been named the Philip and Sima K. Needleman Professor of Medicine.
The professorship was established to support a faculty member holding a key leadership position within the BioMed 21 initiative, a multidisciplinary imperative to rapidly convert research findings into effective, individualized treatments.
Dorn
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, made the announcement.
“The generosity of Dr. and Mrs. Needleman in establishing this professorship is greatly appreciated,” Wrighton said. “Their gift recognizes the importance of the BioMed 21 initiative as a model for research and discovery that leads quickly to new medical treatments, and we are grateful for their vision.”
“Gerald Dorn conducts research in cardiac disease that is multidisciplinary in nature, and he is on the leading edge in the development of individualized care for heart disease,” Shapiro said. “His work epitomizes the ideals of 21st-century medicine in which basic science discoveries reshape and vastly improve health care on a personal level.”
Dorn’s heart-failure research examines how the heart adapts to increased stress and how these adaptive mechanisms ultimately fail. His research into the factors that affect heart function integrates the findings of human genetics studies with experiments performed in genetically manipulated mouse and fly models and basic laboratory investigations using cell and molecular biology approaches. A cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and a top researcher in the area of pharmacogenomics — how an individual’s genetic makeup influences the effect of drug therapy — Dorn has made important contributions to the understanding of how genetic variations determine different patients’ responses to heart failure therapy.
Dorn joined Washington University in January 2008 as associate chairman for translational research and director of the Center for Pharmacogenomics at the School of Medicine.
“It is a privilege to be named the inaugural recipient of this professorship,” Dorn said. “Dr. Needleman is an exemplar of the academic translational scientist, having made important fundamental scientific discoveries that were successfully developed into human therapies and defining novel pharmacological concepts that have broadly impacted our understanding of pharmacokinetics. The unparalleled excellence of Washington University in the area of human genomics provides a unique opportunity for our institution to break new ground in the rapidly evolving area of personalized medicine directed by individual genetic testing.”
Philip Needleman, Ph.D., earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in pharmacology from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. He earned a doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Needleman spent 25 years at the School of Medicine, where he became a full professor and chaired the school’s Department of Pharmacology from 1976-1989. He then became an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. In 2004, Needleman was associate dean at the medical school and assisted with the BioMed 21 initiative.
Needleman is a leading expert on inflammation and the developer of Celebrex, a widely used arthritis drug. He serves on the WUSTL Board of Trustees.
Sima Needleman earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Glassboro State College and a master’s degree in social work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. She was a medical social worker in the Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Jewish Hospital from 1976-1992 and then went into private practice until 1998.
Sima Needleman served 10 years on the Brown School alumni board, for which she chaired numerous committees and served as president from 1993-95.