Director
Michael Welsh received his MD and internal medicine training at the University of Iowa, and trained in pulmonary medicine and research at the University of California at San Francisco and the University ofTexas at Houston.
He is the Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and Neurosurgery. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1989. Dr. Welsh is director of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute.
Dr. Welsh served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and president of the Association of American Physicians. He received the second annual Distinguished Mentor Award presented by the Carver College of Medicine. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Welsh's clinical activities center on pulmonary diseases. His research focuses on the biology, pathogenesis and treatment of cystic fibrosis. He also investigates the neural underpinnings of how acidic pH affects fear and neurological disease.
Dr. Welsh has co-founded two companies, Exemplar Genetics and Emmyon, Inc.
Associate Director
Richard Smith received his MD and otolaryngology training at Baylor College of Medicine, and did a fellowship in pediatric otolaryngology and a sabbatical in mouse genetics both in the UK.
Currently the Sterba Hearing Research Professor and Professor of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, Dr. Smith is also Founding Director of the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics and director of the Molecular Otolaryngology & Renal Research Laboratories. He is Associate Director of the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute.
Dr. Smith served as president of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology and is a three-time recipient of the Barry J. Anson Outstanding Teaching Award presented by the Department of Otolaryngology at Carver College of Medicine. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians. The University of Iowa Physicians named him the first Clinician of the Year in 2011.
Dr. Smith’s clinical practice centers primarily on pediatric patients with hereditary hearing loss. His research focuses on inherited hearing impairment and ultra-rare complement-related renal diseases like Dense Deposit Disease and atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome.
Dr. Smith and his wife, Lynne Lanning, established Kidneeds, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to the cure of Dense Deposit Disease.