November 4, 2004
Volwiler visiting professor to speak
Dr. Bruce Bacon, director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at St. Louis University School of Medicine, will be on campus this month as the 2004 Wade Volwiler visiting professor for the UW Division of Gastroenterology.
He will speak on “Hereditary Hemochromatosis: Implications of Gene Discovery on Clinical Practice” at 8 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 18, in room T-625 of the Health Sciences Center for the weekly Medicine Grand Rounds presentation. He will also speak at the VA medical center, a meeting of the Pacific Northwest Gastroenterology Society, and the Continuing Medical Education Frontiers in Gastroenterology series.
Bacon has clinical and research interests in several liver diseases, with specific expertise in hemochromatosis, hepatic iron metabolism and chronic viral hepatitis. In the laboratory, he is investigating mechanisms of hepatotoxicity, the role of lipid peroxidation in liver injury and fibrogenesis, and activating hepatic stellate cells. His clinical interests include use of various types of interferon in treatment of chronic viral hepatitis and interactions between hepatic iron metabolism and viral hepaittis. He is also an expert in managing chronic liver disease.
He holds the James F. King Endowed Chair in Gastroenterology at St. Louis University and is president-elect of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. He is also the past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Subspecialty Board for Gastroenterology.
The visiting professorship is named for Dr. Wade Volwiler, who joined the UW faculty in 1949 and led the Division of Gastroenterology for 31 years. He was known for his research interests in digestive and liver diseases and was a leader in academic medicine and president of three major professional societies. He died in 2003.
