Dr. Rob Hegele re-appointed to the position of the Jacob J. Wolfe Distinguished Medical Research Chair in Human Gene Function
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Rob Hegele, Distinguished University Professor, Departments of Medicine (Division of Endocrinology) and Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Scientist at Robarts Research Institute, Western University, has been re-appointed to the position of the Jacob J. Wolfe Distinguished Medical Research Chair in Human Gene Function, at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.
As the Jacob J. Wolfe Distinguished Medical Research Chair in Human Gene Function, Professor Hegele joins 450 active researchers at Schulich Medicine and joins more than 40 researchers within the Robarts Research Institute. Dr. Hegele is an internationally-recognized biomedical researcher and academic leader who is dedicated to advancement of research focused on elucidation of the genetic basis of human diseases such as cardiovascular metabolic and infectious diseases.
Dr. Rob Hegele is an endocrinologist with an interest in lipidology and diabetes, who cares for more than 1,800 patients at London Health Sciences Centre. He is the Director of the Blackburn Cardiovascular Genetics Lab and London Regional Genomics Centre. He has trained many physicians and medical students in lipidology and endocrinology, and several graduate students in human genetics. His laboratory has studied the genetic basis of diabetes and atherosclerosis in Canadian sub-populations and aboriginal communities and has discovered the molecular genetic basis of 20 human diseases, including hepatic lipase deficiency, Oji-Cree type 2 diabetes, familial partial lipodystrophy and endocrine-cerebro-ostedysplasia. His lab has recently developed next-generation sequencing diagnostic panels for heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr. Hegele received his medical degree from the University of Toronto. Specialty training in internal medicine and endocrinology was followed by four years of post-doctoral training, first at the Rockefeller University, New York City, in heart disease and cholesterol, and then in human genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was during his research fellowship in New York City that he became inspired to pursue research in genetics.
Dr. Hegele joined the Robarts Research Institute in 1997 and in 1999 became Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry at Western University. In 2007 he became Distinguished University Professor, Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. He presently holds the Martha G. Blackburn Chair in Cardiovascular Research.
He participates on numerous international committees and boards including the Canada Gairdner Awards Medical Review Panel and the European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus panel. He has contributed to recent international treatment guidelines for hypertriglyceridemia, and to national treatment guidelines for cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. Dr. Hegele also participates in a number of professional society and memberships, university committee memberships, and hospital committee memberships.
He has published more than 560 original peer-reviewed articles and serves on numerous journal editorial boards. He has received numerous international awards recognizing his research and his work has been cited more than 15,700 times in the biomedical literature. He is listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge database as being in the top 1% of highly cited scientists in the world.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Hegele on his re-appointment.
Dr. Michael J. Strong, Dean
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
