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Announcement: Dr. Dervla Connaughton re-appointed Eugen Drewlo Chair in Kidney Research and Innovation
Office of the Dean
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Dervla Connaughton has been re-appointed as the Eugen Drewlo Chair in Kidney Research and Innovation in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, effective January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2030.
Dr. Connaughton received her Doctor of Medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2008. She completed her specialist training in general internal medicine and nephrology at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2016. In 2018, she obtained a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London. In 2019, she obtained her PhD in renal genetics from Harvard Medical School and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Connaughton joined the Division of Nephrology within the Department of Medicine at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry in 2019, where she is currently an Assistant Professor. She was appointed in 2023 as the Clinical Lead of the Ontario Health Provincial Genetics Program’s Renal Genetics Expert Group. She also directs the Southwestern Ontario Renal Genetics Service and the Kidney Genetics Clinic at London Health Sciences Centre.
Dr. Connaughton is internationally recognized for her leadership in integrating genomics into kidney care. Since her appointment, she has established an integrated Kidney Genetics Clinic and the Southwestern Ontario Renal Genetics Registry and Biobank. She leads one of the first clinical trials in kidney genetics entitled, “Genomics-First to transform healthcare in chronic kidney disease: The 40 in 1 Study,” which is funded through the Kidney Foundation of Canada. This study aims to determine the clinical utility, cost-effectiveness and patient-centered outcomes of directly implementing genomics testing into the diagnostic pathway for patients with kidney disease. She also serves as Principal Investigator of multiple national and provincial implementation studies advancing precision nephrology. Her research has informed Ontario’s first standardized framework for genetic testing in chronic kidney disease and kidney transplantation. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Kidney International and Genetics in Medicine.
A committed mentor and educator, Dr. Connaughton recently founded one of Canada’s first Kidney Genetics Fellowships (established 2025) and is the founder and chair of the Canadian Nephro-Genetics Consortium — a national network fostering collaboration and training in renal genomics. Together with a dedicated board of patient partners, her work emphasizes patient partnership, health equity and culturally sensitive models of care, including the development of remote genomic consent frameworks and genomic assessment platforms for underserved populations.
Dr. Connaughton’s contributions have been recognized with numerous national awards including the 2023 Canadian Society of Nephrology New Investigator Lectureship, the John Sangster Award (2025), the AHSC AFP Innovation Fund Project AMOSO Outstanding Project Award (2025) and the Best Clinical Nephrology and Trials Network Award from the Canadian Society of Nephrology for Implementation of Genetic Testing in Kidney Transplantation (2025).
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Connaughton on her re-appointment.
John Yoo, MD, FRCS(C), FACS
Dean, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Western University