Louis Muglia, MD, PhD, announces departure
Louis Muglia, MD, PhD, has announced he will be leaving Cincinnati Children’s to be president and Chief Executive Officer at the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) in Research Triangle Park, NC. This prestigious post marks the first time that BWF has selected its president/CEO from an academic medical center. The appointment ratifies Muglia’s stature as a premier physician-scientist and recognizes the strengths of Cincinnati Children’s faculty, several of whom (including Muglia; Sing Sing Way, MD, PhD; and Theresa Alenghat, VMD, PhD) have won BWF career awards.
Muglia joined the Cincinnati Children’s faculty in January 2012 as co-director of the Perinatal Institute and director of the Center for Prevention of Preterm Birth. Under his leadership, Cincinnati Children’s successfully competed to become one of five March of Dimes Prematurity Research Centers in 2013 and successfully renewed the center in 2018.
In addition, he leads the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation International Consortium on Selenium, Genetics and Preterm Birth, along with NIH-supported projects. His work on preterm genetics is internationally recognized, culminating in a transformative New England Journal of Medicine manuscript describing the maternal gene regions that confer risk for preterm birth, the leading cause of infant mortality around the world. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2013.
In January 2016, Muglia was appointed vice chair for Research for Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation. In this role, he has worked to:
- Grow the Cincinnati Children’s research portfolio, implement charters, election strategies and priorities for the research committees
- Enhance the Office of Clinical and Translational Research
- Direct training for the NICHD-funded Child Health Research Career Development Award Program
- Facilitate identification of the top annual research achievements
- Chair the CCRF Endowed Scholars selection committee
In April 2017, Muglia was selected as the A. Graeme Mitchell Chair of Human Genetics and director of the Division of Human Genetics. In this role, he has recruited several new research and clinical faculty, enhanced clinical volumes, promoted telemedicine initiatives, and dramatically decreased wait times for our families in addition to growing the research funding to the division.
“I have been so very fortunate to have the unparalleled growth opportunities Cincinnati Children’s has provided me. I thank all the faculty for their collaborative spirit and their trust in me,” said Muglia. “There is no more special or mission-driven children’s hospital than ours, and I am honored to be a part of its history. In this next phase of my career, I look forward to leading the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to invest in the future of biomedical scientists.”
Muglia begins at the Burroughs Wellcome Fund on January 1.
