Washington University School of Medicine2

Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...

of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with or without a combined

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

or other advanced degree. It also offers doctorate degrees in biomedical research through the Division of Biology and Biological Sciences. The School has developed large

physical therapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, pat ...

(273 students) and

occupational therapy Occupational therapy (OT) is a global healthcare profession. It involves the use of assessment and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain the meaningful activities, or ''occupations'', of individuals, groups, or communities. The field of ...

(233 students) programs, as well as the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences (100 students) which includes a Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) degree and a Master of Science in

Deaf Education Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and othe ...

(M.S.D.E.) degree. There are 1,772 faculty, 1,022 residents, and 765

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

s. The clinical service is provided by Washington University Physicians, a comprehensive medical and surgical practice providing treatment in more than 75 medical specialties. Washington University Physicians are the medical staff of the two teaching hospitals –

Barnes-Jewish Hospital Barnes-Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component ...

and

St. Louis Children's Hospital St. Louis Children's Hospital is a dedicated pediatric hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and has a primary service region covering six states. As the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Children's Ho ...

. They also provide inpatient and outpatient care at the St. Louis Veteran's Administration Hospital, hospitals in the BJC HealthCare system and 35 other office locations throughout the greater St Louis region. '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranks the college high; the school is currently ranked 11th for research and has been ranked as high as 2nd in 2003 and 2004,. The school ranks first in the nation in student selectivity. As of 2019, it also receives the third most funding among all medical schools in the US from the National Institute of Health, totalling an amount of $218 million. Globally, the school is ranked as the 20th and 35th best medical program in 2020 by the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings for medicine and QS World University Ranking for medicine, respectively.

Faculty

Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...

laureates have been associated with the School of Medicine. 12 faculty members are fellows of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

; 30 belong to the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...

. 92 faculty members hold individual career development awards from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...

(NIH). 59 faculty members hold career development awards from non-federal agencies. 14 faculty members have MERIT status, a special recognition given by the National Institutes of Health that provides long-term, uninterrupted financial support to investigators. Six faculty members are

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...

investigators.

History

Medical classes were first held at Washington University in 1891 after the St. Louis Medical College decided to affiliate with the University, establishing a Medical Department. Robert S. Brookings, a University benefactor from its earliest days, devoted much of his work and philanthropy to Washington University and made the improvement of the Medical Department one of his primary objectives. This especially became a cause for concern after an early 1900s Carnegie Foundation report derided the organization and quality of the Medical Department. Following a trend in medical education across the country, research and the creation of new knowledge became a stated objective in a 1906 course catalog for the medical department. For Brookings and the University, incorporating the Medical Department into a separate School of Medicine seemed to be the next logical step. This process began in 1914 when facilities were moved to their current location in St. Louis's Central West End neighborhood in 1914, and was completed in 1918 with the official naming of the School of Medicine. The first female faculty member seems to have been biochemist and physiologist Ethel Ronzoni Bishop, who became an assistant professor in 1923. The Medical School began its escalation from regional renown in the 1940s, a decade when two groups of faculty members received Nobel Prizes, in 1944 and 1947. In 1950, a Cancer Research Building was completed, the first major addition to the School of Medicine since its 1914 move and one of several buildings added in the decade. In the 1960s the School of Medicine diversified its student body, graduating its first African-American student and substantially increasing the percentage of graduating students who are female to nearly half. In March 2020, Washington University School of Medicine announced the construction of a new $616 million, 11-story, 609,000-square-foot

neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...

research building which will sit at the eastern edge of the Medical Campus in the Cortex Innovation Community. Construction of the building is to finish in 2023.

Campus

Washington University Medical Center comprises 164 acres (0.5 km²) spread over about 17 city blocks, located along the eastern edge of

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Forest ...

within the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital, part of BJC HealthCare, the teaching hospitals affiliated with the School of Medicine, are also located within the medical complex. Many of the buildings are connected via sky bridges and corridors. As of 2008, the School of Medicine occupies over in the complex. Washington University and BJC HealthCare have taken on many joint venture projects since their original collaboration in the 1910s. One is the Center for Advanced Medicine, which houses the

Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine is a cancer treatment, research and education institution with six locations in the St. Louis area. Siteman is the only cancer center in Mis ...

and was completed in December 2001. At , it is one of the largest buildings in the complex. The complex has several especially large buildings. In 2007, construction began on the BJC Institutes of Health, of which Washington University's Medical School occupies several floors. It is the largest building constructed on Washington University's campus. Called the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University, it houses the University's BioMed 21 Research Initiative, five interdisciplinary research centers, laboratories, and additional space for The Genome Center. Prominent buildings, centers, and spaces at the medical campus includes

, the

Central Institute for the Deaf Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) is a school for the deaf that teaches students using listening and spoken language, also known as the auditory-oral approach. The school is located in St. Louis, Missouri. CID is affiliated with Washington Univ ...

, Rehabilitation Institute of Saint Louis, Siteman Cancer Center, Center for Advanced Medicine, Charles F. Knight Emergency and Trauma Center, and the Eric P. Newman Education Center. The complex is accessible via the Central West End MetroLink station, which provides transportation to the rest of Washington University's campuses.

Nobel laureates

Physiology or Medicine * 1943: Edward A. Doisy (1893–1986), Faculty of Medicine, 1919–1923 * 1944:

Joseph Erlanger Joseph Erlanger (January 5, 1874 – December 5, 1965) was an American physiologist who is best known for his contributions to the field of neuroscience. Together with Herbert Spencer Gasser, he identified several varieties of nerve fiber and e ...

(1874–1965), Chairman, Department of Physiology 1910–1946 * 1944: Herbert Gasser (1888–1963), Faculty of Medicine, 1916–1931 * 1947: Carl F. Cori (1896–1984), Faculty of Medicine 1931–1984 * 1947: Gerty T. Cori (1896–1957), Faculty of Medicine 1931–1957 * 1959: Arthur Kornberg, Chairman, Department of Microbiology, 1952–1959 * 1959:

Severo Ochoa Severo Ochoa de Albornoz (; 24 September 1905 – 1 November 1993) was a Spanish physician and biochemist, and winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Arthur Kornberg for their discovery of "the mechanisms in ...

, Faculty of Medicine 1940–1942 * 1969:

Alfred Hershey Alfred Day Hershey (December 4, 1908 – May 22, 1997) was an American Nobel Prize–winning bacteriologist and geneticist. He was born in Owosso, Michigan and received his B.S. in chemistry at Michigan State University in 1930 and his Ph.D. i ...

(1908–1997), Faculty of Medicine 1934–1950 * 1971:

Earl Sutherland Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. (November 19, 1915 – March 9, 1974) was an American pharmacologist and biochemist born in Burlingame, Kansas. Sutherland won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1971 "for his discoveries concerning the mechanis ...

(1915–1974), M.D. 42, Resident in Internal Medicine 1943–1945, Faculty of Medicine, 1945–1953 * 1974: Christian de Duve, Faculty of Medicine 1946–1947 * 1978: Daniel Nathans (1928–1999), M.D. 54 * 1978: Hamilton O. Smith, Washington University Medical Service 1956–1957 * 1980: George D. Snell, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1933–1934 * 1986: Stanley Cohen, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1953–1959 * 1986: Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012), Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1948–1977 * 1992: Edwin G. Krebs, M.D. 43, Resident in Internal Medicine and then a Research Fellow in Biological Chemistry 1945–1948 * 1998:

Robert F. Furchgott Robert Francis Furchgott (June 4, 1916 – May 19, 2009) was a Nobel Prize-winning American biochemist who contributed to the discovery of nitric oxide as a transient cellular signal in mammalian systems. Early life and education Furchgott ...

, Ph.D. Faculty of Medicine, 1949–1956 * 2020: Charles M. Rice, Ph.D. Faculty of Medicine, 1986-2001 Chemistry * 1970:

Luis F. Leloir Luis Federico Leloir (September 6, 1906 – December 2, 1987) was an Argentine physician and biochemist who received the 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the metabolic pathways in lactose. Although born in France, Leloir ...

, Faculty of Medicine 1944 * 1980: Paul Berg, Faculty of Medicine 1954–1959 * 2012: Brian Kobilka, Resident in Internal Medicine, 1981–1984

Notable alumni

* Alexis F. Hartmann, MD '21; pediatrician, biochemist and former professor of pediatrics * Ewald W. Busse, MD ’42; psychiatrist and dean of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

School of medicine *

, MD '42; biochemist and winner of the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...

* Edwin G. Krebs, MD ’43; biochemist and winner of the

* David W. Talmage, MD ’44; immunologist * Helen Elizabeth Nash, MD, PhD '45; pediatrician; dean of minority affairs at Washington University School of Medicine *

Ernst Wynder Ernst Ludwig Wynder (April 30, 1922 – July 14, 1999) was an American epidemiology and public health researcher who studied the health effects of smoking tobacco. His and Evarts Ambrose Graham's joint publication of "Tobacco Smoking as a Poss ...

, MD '50; linked smoking with lung cancer * Daniel Nathans, MD ’54; microbiologist and winner of the

and National Medal of Science * James E. Darnell Jr., MD ’55; molecular biologist and winner of the National Medal of Science * Selna Kaplan, MD ’55; pediatric endocrinologist * Thomas Hornbein, MD ’56; mountaineer and chairman of anesthesiology at University of Washington School of Medicine *

Clay Armstrong Clay Margrave Armstrong (born 1934) is an American physiologist and a former student of Andrew Fielding Huxley. Armstrong received his MD from Washington University School of Medicine in 1960. He is currently emeritus professor of Physiology at t ...

, MD ’60; physiologist and winner of the

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 5 ...

for describing K+ channels * Floyd E. Bloom, MD ’60; chairman emeritus of neuropharmacology at Scripps Research Institute and editor-in-chief of ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

'' * Pedro Cuatrecasas, MD ’62; inventor of affinity chromatography and winner of the

Wolf Prize in Medicine The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Arts. The ...

* C. Garrison Fathman, MD ’69; clinical immunologist * Philip O. Alderson, MD ’70; dean of Saint Louis University School of Medicine * Jonathan Mann, MD ’74; head of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

global AIDS program * Dan R. Littman, MD, PhD ’80; immunologist, HHMI investigator, member of the

and the

* Eric D. Green, MD, PhD ’87, HS ’91; director of the

NHGRI The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland. NHGRI began as the Office of Human Genome Research in The Office of the Director in 1988. This Office transi ...

Other associated hospitals

* Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital * Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital * Christian Hospital * Northwest HealthCare * Metropolitan St. Louis Psychiatric Center *

Missouri Baptist Medical Center Missouri Baptist Medical Center, known locally as MoBap, is a hospital in Town and Country, Missouri. Its origins were in 1884 when Dr. William H. Mayfield opened his home to patients. In 1886 it opened as the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium. In 189 ...

* St. Louis Shriner's Hospital

References

External links

* {{Coord, 38.6370, -90.2646, type:edu_region:US-MO, display=title Medical schools in Missouri School of Medicine Educational institutions established in 1891 Washington University in St. Louis campus 1891 establishments in Missouri Central West End, St. Louis