Hooked on Rheum with Randy Q. Cron, MD, PhD
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During my second year of medical school, my immunology professor, Carl F. Ware, PhD, of lymphotoxin fame, suggested a new program supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
It allowed for medical students to explore a research aspect to their careers by spending a year in a laboratory at the NIH. With the guidance of William E. Paul, MD, I chose the lab of Jeffery Bluestone, PhD, and was instantly hooked on research. I followed Jeff to the University of Chicago and extended my time off between my second and third years of medical school at the University of California Los Angeles to pursue a PhD in immunology.
After returning to UCLA, I did an away rotation in Palo Alto to hang out with one of my MD/PhD friends from Chicago, who had started his internal medicine residency training at Stanford. After my pediatrics rotation at Harbor-UCLA, I knew I wanted to be a pediatrician, so I did a rotation in pediatric rheumatology with Jack Miller, MD, one of the founding fathers of pediatric rheumatology in the United States.
The field was fascinating, as pediatric rheumatologic conditions’ pathophysiology and treatment were rooted in immunology. The field of pediatric rheumatology was still in its infancy, but there was massive room for growth in understanding disease mechanism and for translation to therapeutics.
After medical school, I returned to Stanford and Jack Miller for pediatrics residency training. I was guided by Dr. Miller to the University of Washington for pediatric rheumatology fellowship training with Carol Wallace, MD, and David Sherry, MD. They used an early and aggressive treatment approach to quiet disease among their pediatric rheumatology patient cohort, and this has been integral to my own career. I worked in the lab of David Lewis, MD, where he taught me human immunology. The mentorships from Drs. Ware, Bluestone, Miller, Wallace, Sherry and Lewis were instrumental for me being “Hooked on Rheum.”
Randall Q. Cron, MD, PhD
Director
Pediatric Rheumatology
University of Alabama at Birmingham