Anthony J. Muslin, M.D., has been named the Oliver M. Langenberg Distinguished Professor of the Science and Practice of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The professorship was established by the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation in recognition of Oliver M. Langenberg’s outstanding contributions to the foundation’s success. Langenberg serves as the foundation’s chairman of the board.
Langenberg grew up in St. Louis and graduated from Princeton University in 1935. After World War II, he worked at Gaylord Container and then moved to Mallinckrodt Chemical Company. In 1961, Langenberg began a new career with A.G. Edwards where he helped pioneer their overseas operations and saw the company develop from 12 branch offices to the 700 it has today. At the age of 94, Langenberg continues at A.G. Edwards as senior vice president of institutional sales.
The Mallinckrodt Foundation, established by Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. in 1953 for the purpose of furthering medical education and research, has provided research support for 28 faculty members at the School of Medicine since 1991. Its grants to the School of Medicine have totaled about $10 million. Langenberg says he hopes the funding provided by the Mallinckrodt Foundation will someday lead to a Nobel Prize for one of the many scientists it has supported over the years.
Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Larry Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, announced the appointment of Muslin to the new position.
“The University has gratefully benefited from the unwavering commitment of the Mallinckrodt Foundation to advancing medical research,” Wrighton said. “This professorship will support distinguished faculty members in the Department of Medicine. The inaugural holder of the professorship, Dr. Muslin, is doing important research to address heart disease, one of the most common and costly health problems in the United States today.”
Shapiro added that the professorship honors a physician-scientist who has made significant contributions to cardiac research. “Since joining the faculty of the School of Medicine in 1994, Tony Muslin has greatly expanded the medical community’s understanding of the underlying causes of heart disease.”
Muslin is also professor of cell biology and physiology, director of the Cardiology Research Fellowship Program, co-director of the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) and a cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Muslin conducts research into the molecular causes of cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the heart muscle, and of congestive heart failure. Recently, his investigations revealed the role of signaling molecules in the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy and cardiac hypertrophy in response to hypertension. He identified a pivotal regulatory switch that differentiates the healthy increase in cardiac muscle found in athletes from the unhealthy increase associated with high blood pressure and diabetes.
“It is my hope that in the future it will be possible to convert pathological cardiac hypertrophy to a more adaptive, physiological form,” said Muslin. “Several growth factors and hormones, such as growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor, promote the physiological growth of the heart and may be useful for the treatment of patients with heart disease.”
Muslin earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his medical internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 1987, and then went on to clinical and research fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco. He was assistant adjunct professor of medicine at that institution from 1992 to 1994 before joining the staff of Washington University.
Muslin is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and was recently elected to fellowship in the American Heart Association Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences. He is the recipient of a Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research, which supports the career development of physician-scientists whose work bridges the gap between basic research and patient care.
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 fourth 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.