About Me
I am a tenured Professor of Medicine and Molecular Medicine & Translational Research and Director of Hepatology/Liver Service Line and The Liver and Metabolic Disorders Laboratory at Wake Forest School of Medicine. I also have academic appointments as visiting professor at Winston-Salem State University, Professor of Medicine at The University of CT Health Center, and Professor of Biology and Medicine at the University of North Carolina. I am known nationally and internationally as a clinical hepatologist, teacher, mentor, and clinical investigator. I am a valedictory graduate of Earlham College [Richmond, IN] and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland, OH). My post-graduate training was at Duke University, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, The U.S. National Institutes of Health, Dartmouth Medical School, and Yale University.
I joined the Department of Medicine, Section on Gastroenterology & Hepatology, of Wake Forest School of Medicine in January, 2015. I have continued to maintain an active clinical practice, focused on liver disorders and metabolic disorders, especially disorders of iron, porphyrin, and heme metabolism. My research is in porphyrin and heme metabolism, effects of heme and iron on gene expression and intermediary metabolism, and drug- and herbal supplement-induced liver injury.
Among my seminal contributions to the study of disorders of porphyrin and heme metabolism were the first preparation and therapeutic use of heme (in the form of the hydroxide, hematin) for therapy of acute porphyrias and demonstration of defective activity of ferrochelatase as the underlying cause of erythropoietic protoporphyria. Hemin for human use was the first Orphan Drug ever developed, and its use for therapy of acute porphyric syndromes has stood the test of time. Still today, it is the treatment of choice for treatment of attacks of acute porphyria.
I am a Fellow of ACP, ACG, AGA, and AASLD and author of > 400 full papers. He is also an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (The Young Turks) and the Association of American Physicians (The Old Turks). Continually since 1996, I have been selected by my peers as one of America’s Top Doctors and Top Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists.