Tradition of excellence

Kerry Kornfeld, MD, PhD (right), professor of developmental biology, and lab manager Luke Schneider observe C. elegans nematodes, the model organism Kornfeld uses to study cell pattern formation during development and aging. “(Kerry) is an outstanding developmental biologist and geneticist, a superb thinker and a wonderfully thoughtful person who was able to quickly forge connections between faculty and students in several departments, including molecular biology and pharmacology and genetics,” says Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and professor of medicine, of pathology and immunology and of developmental biology.

When Kerry Kornfeld, MD, PhD, says his life began at the School of Medicine, he means that literally.
 
“I was born at Barnes Hospital,” says Kornfeld, whose research laboratory is located a stone’s throw from the place of his birth.

As the youngest branch on a family tree with deep roots at the School of Medicine, Kornfeld, professor of developmental biology, is carrying on the family’s tradition of excellence in both research and service.

The first of Washington University’s elite cadre of faculty members known as “Dr. Kornfeld” was Kerry Kornfeld’s grandfather Max Kornfeld, the youngest member of the Washington University School of Dentistry’s Class of 1924. Max Kornfeld began teaching metallurgy and comparative dental anatomy at his alma mater in 1925.

The next Dr. Kornfeld at WUSTL was Max’s son Stuart, who completed a medical degree at the School of Medicine in 1962 and joined the faculty in 1966. Today, Stuart Kornfeld, MD, is the David C. and Betty Farrell Distinguished Professor of Medicine, co-director of the Physician Scientist Training Program at the School of Medicine and a world-renowned physician-scientist.

It was Stuart Kornfeld’s marriage to graduate student Rosalind Hauk during his medical training that led to Kerry Kornfeld’s aforementioned birth at Barnes Hospital.

“My mom (the late Rosalind Kornfeld, PhD) had my older sister and me while she was working on a doctorate in biochemistry,” says Kornfeld of his mother, who completed the doctorate in 1961 when Kerry still was an infant.

In 1966, Stuart and Rosalind Kornfeld joined the medical school faculty and began a professional collaboration that would lead to significant scientific discoveries.

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