Michael Rauchman, MD, awarded the Chromalloy Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine emdowment by Benjamin Humphreys, MD, chief of the Division of Nephrology.
Congratulations to Michael Rauchman, MDCM, professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology, who was recently installed as Chromalloy Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine. Colleagues, family and friends joined in the celebration of the endowed professorship on October, 18, 2019, at the Saint Louis Club.
A renowned physician-scientist, Dr. Rauchman’s research focuses on understanding the molecular and genetic basis of kidney development and how disruption of specific pathways leads to abnormal development of the kidney. He is the recipient of numerous grants, including an R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders (NIDDK). Rauchman’s clinical interests lie with management of advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), inherited renal diseases and renal disease in pregnancy.
Dr. Rauchman’s colleagues, family, and friends gathered for the celebration of the endowed professorship.
As chief of nephrology at the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System, which has been affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine since 1946, Rauchman sees veterans in a weekly out-patient general nephrology clinic and on the in-patient consult service. He oversees a busy clinical service including eight weekly general nephrology clinics, interdisciplinary hypertension and advanced CKD clinics, and an end-stage renal disease program.
Rauchman is also very active in research at the VA. He is principal investigator (St. Louis site) of a Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study called The Million Veteran Program (MVP), one of the world’s largest programs on genetics and health. The MVP is a research initiative that is creating a mega-database of genetic, health, lifestyle, and military background information that is available for researchers to study how genes affect health and illness. The program reached a milestone this year: over 800,000 veteran partners have joined the MVP since the program launched in 2011.
Rauchman’s special appreciation and affection for veterans is poignantly detailed in an Editors’ Picks article published November 8, 2019, in the Washington University School of Medicine News Hub. The article describes how Rauchman’s Jewish parents, both Holocaust survivors, raised him to honor the U.S. Military. Please read the excellent article here.
Born in Canada, Rauchman earned his medical degree from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Canada, and went on to complete both his fellowship in nephrology and postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He came to Washington University in 1999 as a staff nephrologist and assistant professor of medicine before transferring to SLU in 2003. Rauchman returned to the Division of Nephrology in 2018 as professor of medicine.
“I am excited to be back at Washington University to reconnect with old friends and to get to know some terrific new colleagues,” says Rauchman. “The division has a bright future under Ben Humphreys’ leadership. I am humbled by this honor.”
For more pictures, see a slideshow of the celebration on the Division of Nephrology’s Facebook page.
