Healthcare Professionals
Healthcare Professionals

Lou Muglia, MD, PhD, takes on directorship of Human Genetics

Staff Bulletin.Louis Muglia, MD, PhD, has been appointed to the role of A. Graeme Mitchell chair and director of the Division of Human Genetics.

Muglia, who trained in pediatrics and pediatric endocrinology at Boston Children’s, came to the Perinatal Institute of Cincinnati Children’s in January 2012 after faculty positions at Washington University in St. Louis (1996-2008) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (2008-2012), where he also served as vice chair for Research.

His expertise in the genetics of preterm birth has been nationally and internationally recognized with a Lucille Markey Charitable Trust Scholar award, a Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Career Development Award, and multiple NIH R01s since 2001. In addition to his R01-funded research, he currently serves as the principal investigator for a March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center ($2 million annually) that links investigators throughout the state of Ohio and beyond.  He is also the principal investigator of two grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study maternal genetics and micronutrient status as risk factors for preterm birth.

Muglia’s bibliography includes more than 215 peer-reviewed publications and chapters; many of his senior-authored papers have appeared in premier journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature, PNAS, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. His wide network of international collaborators and colleagues promises to yield exciting recruits not only in human genetics, but also in computational, functional and statistical genomics. In recognizing the stature of his research, Muglia has been elected to the SPR and APS, as well as to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine. He is also the recipient of numerous awards for outstanding mentorship.

Says Peggy Hostetter, MD, chair of Pediatrics and director, Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation, “We look forward to the inception of the exciting vision that Dr. Muglia has proposed to enhance both rare and complex disease genetics, to expand our functional genomics infrastructure, and to reinforce our nationally recognized program in genetic counseling.”

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