Keith Hruska, MD, a world-renowned nephrologist and researcher, is celebrating 50 years as a faculty member at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His impressive career includes significant contributions to the understanding of bone and mineral metabolism in relation to chronic kidney diseases (CKD).
Currently a Professor of Pediatrics and Director Emeritus of Pediatric Nephrology at WashU, Dr. Hruska earned his medical degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1969. He started his internal medicine residency training at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell Campus) and completed it at Washington University in St. Louis. Hruska then entered the Nephrology Fellowship Program at WashU and joined the faculty after graduation in 1974.
Hruska was Director of the Division of Nephrology at the former Jewish Hospital for 17 years. After the merger of Barnes Hospital and Jewish Hospital, he became Director of Nephrology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, a post he held until 2012. In addition, he was the Medical Director of Mid-American Transplant Services for more than 20 years.
An authority in the biology of phosphorus, calcium, renal osteodystrophy, and vascular calcification, Hruska has redefined the field of bone mineral disorders in kidney disease. The current focus of research in the Hruska Laboratory is cardiovascular complications including vascular calcification. They have determined the mechanism of hyperphosphatemia as a cardiovascular risk factor in CKD; translational animal studies have promising new therapeutic approaches to vascular calcification and the bone and mineral disorders of CKD. They are preparing for clinical trials of cardiovascular outcomes in CKD and for new therapeutic agents.
Read about the exciting projects under investigation in the Hruska lab; see Dr. Hruska’s publications here.
Dr. Hruska insists that his scientific efforts could not have occurred without the support of his loving wife, Pamela, and his family. He considers his three children – Kerstin, Keith Jr., and Luke – and their families, which include ten grandchildren, to be his “greatest accomplishment.”
Congratulations to Dr. Keith Hruska on this remarkable milestone!
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