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Dr. Peter Mundel Named to Key Positions in the Department of Medicine

5/11/2009

Peter Mundel, M.D., professor of medicine and cell biology and anatomy, has been named chief of the newly formed Division of Molecular Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the Miller School.  Dr. Mundel, who previously was director of the Basic Research Program in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, will also serve as the Department of Medicine’s vice chair for research.  Dr. Mundel joined the faculty in April 2008 from his position as professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

“Dr Mundel brings extraordinary research success and enthusiasm to these jobs and will be a critical individual in helping further enhance a series of research initiatives and recruitments both in this newly formed division and the department as a whole,” said Marc E. Lippman, M.D., professor and chair of medicine.

“I am extremely excited about this dual leadership role during this time of dramatic growth of the research activities within the department,” said Mundel.

Dr. Mundel succeeds Robert Hoffman, D.O., as vice chair of research.  During Dr. Hoffman’s tenure the department’s NIH research ranking improved from 72 to 43 from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2008.  He will now resume his full-time role as chief of the Division of Rheumatology.

Dr. Mundel attended medical school at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the program “Experimental Kidney and Circulation Research” at the University of Heidelberg, which was funded by the German Research Foundation.  He is also the author or co-author of more than 95 original research articles. Dr. Mundel’s focus is on actin binding proteins in various tissues including the heart, brain and kidney podocytes.  His research helped to define cellular systems that are regarded as gold standards in renal research and helped to catalyze molecular studies of renal diseases.

In 2003 Dr. Mundel was awarded the esteemed American Society of Nephrology Young Investigator Award.  He is a member of numerous scientific organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Investigation.