Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), located in
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, is one of the graduate schools of
Washington University in St. LouisWashington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
. One of the top medical schools in the United States, it is currently ranked 4th for research according to
U.S. News and World Report and has been listed among the top ten medical schools since rankings were first published in 1987. The School of Medicine consistently ranks first in the nation in student selectivity. Located on the eastern border of
Forest ParkForest Park is a public park located in western part of the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is a prominent civic center and covers . The park, which opened in 1876 more than a decade after its proposal, has hosted several significant events, including the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 and...
, it is affiliated with
Barnes-Jewish HospitalBarnes-Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the adult teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine, and is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is consistently rated one of the top hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report...
,
St. Louis Children's HospitalSt. Louis Children's Hospital is an academic pediatric hospital providing tertiary level care in St. Louis, Missouri. SLCH is the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine. It is the seventh oldest children's hospital in the United States and the first children's...
, the St. Louis
Veteran's Administration HospitalThe Veterans Health Administration is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the medical assistance program of the VA through the administration and operation of numerous VA outpatient clinics,...
, Shriner's Hospital for Children and several other community sites.
Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, of which 604 are pursuing a
Medical DegreeDoctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
with or without a combined
Doctor of PhilosophyDoctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
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 therapyPhysical therapy , often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment/intervention,and rehabilitation...
(273 students) and
occupational therapyOccupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
(233 students) programs, as well as the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences (75 students) which includes a Doctor of
AudiologyAudiology is the branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Its practitioners, who treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage are audiologists. Employing various testing strategies Audiology (from Latin , "to hear"; and from Greek , -logia) is...
(Au.D.) degree and a Master of Science in
Deaf EducationDeaf education is the academic discipline concerned the education of students with various hearing capabilities in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs.Deaf education also includes the study of:* Special education...
(M.S.D.E.) degree. There are 1,772 faculty, 1,022 residents, and 765
fellowA fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
s.
Faculty
17
NobelThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureates have been associated with the School of Medicine.
12 faculty members are fellows of the National Academy of Sciences; 30 belong to the Institute of Medicine.
92 faculty members hold individual career development awards from the National Institutes of Health (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.
6 faculty members are Howard Hughes Medical Institute 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. BrookingsRobert Somers Brookings was an American businessman and philanthropist, known for his involvement with Washington University in St. Louis and his founding of the Brookings Institution.-Biography:Brookings grew up on the Little Elk Creek in Cecil County, near Baltimore, Maryland...
, 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 FoundationCarnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations...
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 permanently 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 Medical School began its escalation from regional renown in the 1940s, a decade when two Nobel Prizes were awarded, in 1944 and 1947, to groups of faculty members. In 1950, a Cancer Research Building was completed, being the first major new building addition to the School of Medicine since its relocation in 1914. More buildings were added in that decade, and in the 1960s the School of Medicine focused on diversifying its student body by graduating its first African-American and substantially increasing the percentage of graduating students who are female to nearly 50%.
Campus
Washington University Medical Center comprises 155 acres (0.5 km²) spread over approximately 15 city blocks, located along the eastern edge of Forest Park 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 a series of sky bridges and corridors. As of 2008, the School of Medicine occupies over 4500000 square feet (418,063.7 m²) in the entire medical complex.
Washington University and BJC HealthCare have taken on many joint venture projects since their original collaboration in the 1910s. The Center for Advanced Medicine, completed in December 2001, is one such collaboration, which houses the Siteman Cancer Center. At 650000 square feet (60,387 m²), it is one of the largest single buildings in the Medical Complex..
In the expansive Medical Complex are several especially large buildings. The Medical Complex's Queeny Tower is the 9th tallest hospital building in the world. Recently completed is the 700000 square feet (65,032.1 m²) BJC Institutes of Health, of which Washington University's Medical School will occupy several floors. It is the largest building constructed on Washington University's campus. Called the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University, it will house the University's BioMed 21 Research Initiative, five interdiscplinary research centers, laboratories, and additional space for
The Genome CenterThe Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of three NIH funded large-scale sequencing centers in the United States...
..
On Monday, July 19, 2010, a news release from the website of the Washington University School of Medicine announced the formation of the Washington University Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (WUIDDRC). The new research center was established by a five-year, $6 million grant from the
National Institutes of HealthThe National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
(the NIH), and will focus on research to prevent and treat developmental disabilities in children. Special emphasis will be placed on clinical and translational research as well as reaching out to families and the community with resources and services. The center will work closely with the state of Missouri. Dr. Terrie E. Inder, M.D., Ph.D., who is a neonatal specialist and a professor of pediatrics, radiology, and of neurology, will direct the center. It will be under the auspices of the pediatrics department of the medical school, headed by Dr. Alan L. Schwartz, Ph.D., M.D. The center's research focus will be on cerebral connectivity, genetics, and environmental influences. Its sections are administrative, animal models, human clinical, imaging and biostatistics and informatics. The institute will collaborate with other IDDRCs in the Midwest. The center received additional start-up funding from the McDonnell Centers for System Neuroscience and Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology and from the Washington University School of Medicine.
Prominent buildings, centers, and spaces at the medical campus includes
Barnes-Jewish HospitalBarnes-Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the adult teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine, and is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is consistently rated one of the top hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report...
, the
Central Institute for the DeafCentral Institute for the Deaf is a school for the deaf that teaches students using the auditory-oral approach to education. Founded in 1914 by otologist Max Aaron Goldstein, MD, the school is located in St. Louis, Missouri. CID is also an affiliate of Washington University in St...
,
St. Louis Children's HospitalSt. Louis Children's Hospital is an academic pediatric hospital providing tertiary level care in St. Louis, Missouri. SLCH is the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine. It is the seventh oldest children's hospital in the United States and the first children's...
, 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 Medical Complex is accessible via the
Central West End MetroLinkCentral West End is a St. Louis MetroLink Station, located in the Central West End at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Children's Place. This station services the Washington University Medical Center, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Children's Hospital, and St. Louis University High...
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 was an American physiologist.Erlanger was born on January 5, 1874, at San Francisco, California. He completed his B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and completed his M.D. in 1899 from the Johns Hopkins University...
(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
Arthur Kornberg was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959 for his discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid " together with Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University...
, Chairman, Department of Microbiology, 1952–1959
- 1959: Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz was a Spanish-American doctor and biochemist, and joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.-Early life:...
, Faculty of Medicine 1940-1942
- 1969: Alfred Hershey
Alfred Day Hershey 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. in bacteriology in 1934, taking a position shortly thereafter at the Department of Bacteriology...
(1908–1997), Faculty of Medicine 1934-1950
- 1971: Earl Sutherland (1915–1974), M.D. 42, Resident in Internal Medicine 1943-1945, Faculty of Medicine, 1945–1953
- 1974: Christian de Duve
Christian René, viscount de Duve is a Nobel Prize-winning cytologist and biochemist. De Duve was born in Thames Ditton, Surrey, Great Britain, as a son of Belgian refugees. They returned to Belgium in 1920...
, Faculty of Medicine 1946-1947
- 1978: Daniel Nathans
Daniel Nathans was an American microbiologist.He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the last of nine children born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. During the Great Depression his father lost his small business and was unemployed for a long period of time...
(1928–1999), M.D. 54
- 1978: Hamilton O. Smith
Hamilton Othanel Smith is an American microbiologist and Nobel laureate.Smith was born on August 23, 1931, and graduated from University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but in 1950 transferred to the University of California,...
, Washington University Medical Service 1956-1957
- 1980: George D. Snell, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1933-1934
- 1986: Stanley Cohen
Stan Cohen may refer to:* Stanley Cohen , American Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology and Medicine* Stan Cohen , British Labour politician...
, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1953-1959
- 1986: Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini , Knight Grand Cross is an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor...
, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1948-
- 1992: Edwin G. Krebs
-External links:*Hughes, R. 1998. *Krebs, E.G. * *...
, M.D. 43, Resident in Internal Medicine and then a Research Fellow in Biological Chemistry 1945-1948
- 1998: Robert F. Furchgott
Robert Francis Furchgott was a Nobel Prize-winning American biochemist.Furchgott was born in Charleston, SC, to Arthur Furchgott and Pena Sorentrue Furchgott...
, Ph.D. Faculty of Medicine, 1949–1956
Chemistry
- 1970: Luis F. Leloir, Faculty of Medicine 1944
- 1980: Paul Berg
Paul Berg is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their contributions to basic research involving nucleic acids...
, Faculty of Medicine 1954-1959
Other associated hospitals
- St. Louis Children's Hospital
St. Louis Children's Hospital is an academic pediatric hospital providing tertiary level care in St. Louis, Missouri. SLCH is the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine. It is the seventh oldest children's hospital in the United States and the first children's...
- Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital
Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital is a 108 bed hospital in St. Louis County, Missouri. The campus consists of Washington University School of Medicine and private practice physicians. Barnes–Jewish West County Hospital is a member of BJC HealthCare and employs nearly 500 healthcare...
- 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 St. Louis, 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 1892, it offered ambulance service via horse and carriage...
- St. Louis Shriner's Hospital
External links