Kevin Campbell, PhD, and Michael Welsh, MD, will continue to serve as Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators for another five years following renewal of their appointments by HHMI.

Both Campbell and Welsh have been faculty members at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine since 1981, and HHMI investigators since 1989. Campbell is professor and chair of molecular physiology and biophysics, and director of the Senator Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, and Welsh is professor of internal medicine, director of the University of Iowa Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, and director of the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute.

“Kevin and Mike have been extraordinary leaders of our research community for close to four decades. To have been selected as HHMI investigators for most of that tenure is a great honor and a clear indicator of their impact and value of their science,” says Brooks Jackson, MD, MBA, University of Iowa vice president for medical affairs and the Tyrone D. Artz Dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine. “Through fundamental curiosity, innovative thinking, and a collaborative approach to research, Kevin and Mike have advanced understanding of disease and development of therapies in their respective fields of muscular dystrophies and cystic fibrosis. We are very proud of their achievements and very grateful that they have chosen to share and foster those values here at Iowa.”

Kevin Campbell, PhD

Campbell, who also is a Roy J. Carver Chair in Biomedical Research and a professor of neurology, focuses on understanding the molecular, cellular, and physiological basis of various forms of muscular dystrophy. His research has led to significant new mechanistic insights into the molecular pathogenesis of muscular dystrophy and has profound clinical implications for the diagnosis and treatment of muscular dystrophies.  Collectively, his work provides the scientific basis for the current therapies that are being tested for Duchenne and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Campbell is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been the recipient of numerous national and international honors, including the 2009 March of Dimes Prize and 2020 ASBMB Herbert Tabor Research Award.  

Michael Welsh, MD

Welsh earned bachelor’s and medical degrees and completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Iowa. He holds a Roy J. Carver Chair in Biomedical Research, and is a professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, neurology, and neurosurgery. His research focuses on the biology of cystic fibrosis, with the goal of developing new treatments. Discoveries from Welsh’s lab showing how CF gene mutations cause disease provided the knowledge and strategy underpinning the recent development of new targeted CF therapies that now benefit 90% of patients with CF. Welsh is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the 2017 Steven C. Beering Award and the 2018 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for his cystic fibrosis research.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a nonprofit medical research organization that ranks as one of the nation's largest philanthropies, plays a powerful role in advancing biomedical research and science education in the United States. HHMI provides salaries, laboratory space, and equipment for investigators and their research teams.