Rothenberg Named to National Academy of Medicine
Post Date: October 17, 2022 | Publish Date:
The National Academy of Medicine has selected Marc Rothenberg, MD, PhD, as one of its new members during its annual meeting held on Oct. 17 in Washington, D.C.
Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. New members are elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.
Rothenberg is director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology and Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders at Cincinnati Children’s. He is also the founder and principal investigator of the Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Researchers, a consortium of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN), and serves as a member of the RDCRN leadership. He is recognized as a leader in research and treatment of eosinophilic and allergic mechanisms and conditions, including his role in the development of the first FDA-approved treatment for an eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorder, dupilumab.
Rothenberg was elected in recognition for being a thought leader in Allergy who uncovers mechanisms and then new therapies, contributing to a new class of drugs (anti-eosinophil therapy) and elucidating an allergen-sensing mechanism.
A Career of Distinction
Since joining Cincinnati Children’s as faculty 26 years ago, Rothenberg has authored or co-authored more than 400 research publications on topics including allergic and eosinophilic mechanisms and disease.
“We know so much about the human body, yet the science of medicine holds many mysteries. This could not be truer for allergic and immune conditions, many of which have origins in childhood and cause immense suffering,” says Rothenberg. “In my clinical practice and laboratory at Cincinnati Children’s, I am focused on solving the mysteries of allergic inflammatory disease, especially eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders, or EGIDs.”
Early in his training, Rothenberg had the opportunity to work alongside wonderful mentors who supported him and his interests in this work. At Brandeis University, he worked under the guidance of the late William P. Jencks, MD, a renowned biochemist, and learned the basic tenets of scientific inquiry. Under the direction of Harvard Medical School’s K. Frank Austen, MD, Rothenberg conducted studies on eosinophil hematopoiesis and developed the first culture system for human eosinophils. During his postdoctoral training with Harvard’s renowned geneticist Philip Leder, MD, Rothenberg cloned the eotaxin chemokine.
At Cincinnati Children’s, his continued mission is to improve the health and well-being of children with allergic and immune conditions through innovative research, outstanding clinical care, and education of the current and next generation of leaders in healthcare and research.
Taking a multidisciplinary approach, he has developed preclinical models that have taught us more about the genetics, genomics, molecular immunology and biochemistry of eosinophilic diseases and also built translational experimental systems that help us better understand human disease. These approaches have laid the foundation for clinical trials in patients. His approach to patients is to provide the best care possible while learning from each patient through research.
With the support of his team, he was awarded a National Institutes of Health Merit Award and a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Achievement Award. He was also elected a member of both the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He currently serves as president-elect of the International Eosinophil Society and hopes to use this experience to positively influence future research and care for eosinophilic disease.
“I am pleased to see my research advance the understanding and treatment of allergic diseases,” says Rothenberg. “At the same time, I know that we need to do much more.”
Rothenberg joins nine other faculty members at Cincinnati Children’s to ever be named to the National Academy of Medicine. Others include: Thomas Boat, MD; Tina Cheng, MD, MPH; Alan Jobe, MD, PhD; Margaret Hostetter, MD; Uma Kotagal, MBBS, MSc; Peter Margolis, MD, PhD; Louis Muglia, MD, PhD; Arnold Strauss, MD; and Jeffrey Whitsett, MD.
