Robert J Alpern MD
Ensign Professor of Medicine (Nephrology); Dean, Yale School of Medicine

Departments & Organizations
Internal Medicine: NephrologyBiography
Dr. Robert J. Alpern attended undergraduate school at Northwestern University, where he majored in Chemistry. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1976, and received residency training in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Following this, he performed a postdoctoral fellowship in Nephrology in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1982, Dr. Alpern joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, and in 1987 he was recruited to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as Chief of the Division of Nephrology. At Southwestern Dr. Alpern held the Ruth W. and Milton P. Levy, Sr. Chair in Molecular Nephrology and the Atticus James Gill, M.D. Chair in Medical Science. In July 1998 Dr. Alpern was appointed Dean of Southwestern Medical School and in June 2004, he moved to the Yale University School of Medicine to become the Ensign Professor of Medicine and Dean of the medical school. Dr. Alpern’s research has focused on the regulation of kidney transport proteins. In addition Dr. Alpern has been highly committed to teaching and clinical medicine. In 2000 he was elected President of the American Society of Nephrology. He was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the Institute of Medicine and has served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.Education
- B.A., Northwestern University , 1972
- M.D., University of Chicago , 1976
Selected Publication
- Laghmani, K., A. Sakamoto, M. Yanagisawa, P.A. Preisig, and R.J. Alpern. A consensus sequence in the endothelin B receptor second intracellular loop is required for NHE3 activation by endothelin-1. Am. J. Physio. 288:F732-F739, 2005.
Latest Honor and Recognition
- Phi Beta Kappa(1972)
Articles

Nov/Dec 2007
New building is ‘a place for great science’
“This is the future,” declared Yale President Richard C. Levin at the October 5 ribbon cutting for the medical school’s...

Sept/Oct 2006
Yale launches new stem cell research program
Stem cells, which can create copies of themselves that differentiate into many of the myriad cell types that form the...

Oct/Nov 2005
Yale and Donaghue partnership treats research advances as a practical matter
When the trustees and staff of the West Hartford, Conn.-based Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research...

May/June 2011
Symposium is ‘once-in-a-lifetime event’
It was the hottest ticket in town—and you didn’t even need a ticket.This spring, 15 of the top minds in science...

June 2012
The medical school’s ‘hidden treasure’
As is the case at most medical schools, Yale’s Department of Internal Medicine is by far its largest, with over 300...
Aug/Sept 2005
Connecticut’s $100 million stem cell program good news for Yale
In her Yale laboratory in 2001, Diane S. Krause, M.D., Ph.D., surprised the scientific community with her discovery...

Jan/Feb 2009
Head of medical school is honored by nephrology society
At its annual meeting last November, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) awarded the 2008 John P. Peters Award to...

Nov/Dec 2007
Three faculty members named to the Institute of Medicine
In October, three School of Medicine faculty members were named to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a part of the...

May 2012
Specialist in pancreatic cancer lauded for outstanding patient care
Ronald R. Salem, M.D., Lampman Professor of Surgery, professor of diagnostic radiology, and chief of the medical...

Nov/Dec 2009
Clinical research: the next generation
In 2006, former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., launched the Clinical and...

Jan/Feb 2010
‘Stimulus package’ grants saving jobs, building infrastructure, advancing research at Yale
The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), colloquially known as “the stimulus package,”...

December 2010
Annual auction nets more than $25,000 for New Haven charities
The annual student-run Hunger and Homelessness Auction, held on November 18, garnered more than $25,000 for New Haven...

June/July 2005
A long, fruitful collaboration: Bristol-Myers Squibb and Yale
Continuing a partnership with the School of Medicine that was forged more than 30 years ago, the Bristol-Myers Squibb...

Jan/Feb 2010
Fighting the fallout of childhood cancer
Riva Ariella Ritvo, Ph.D., has a favorite quote from Gandhi: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the...

Sept/Oct 2009
Three decades at the helm, and a legacy
Launched in 1969 and continuously supported by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since...

July/August 2008
An indelible smile, and a caring heart
On the morning of Saturday, April 19, Mila Rainof, a member of the School of Medicine’s Class of 2008, was struck by a...

Jan/Feb 2009
For faculty - past, present and future
In 1879, 23-year-old Robert McNeil, who had recently graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science,...

Nov/Dec 2007
For patients, research … and for Yale
Joel E. Smilow, a 1954 graduate of Yale College, has done a great deal for his alma mater. In the 1980s he made a...

July/August 2007
Passing the torch
When Franklin H. Top Jr., M.D., and his wife, Lois Top, M.N.Ed., paid a visit to the School of Medicine recently, it...

Sept/Oct 2006
NIH selects the School of Medicine for new clinical research initiative
Basic biomedical research, with its careful, tightly controlled experiments on cells and laboratory animals, is...
July/August 2006
A love of Yale, a vision for its future
Having had a remarkably wide-ranging career during which he headed companies involved in everything from small aircraft...
May/June 2006
A brother’s gift launches Yale Scholars
The Yale Scholars program, a new School of Medicine initiative to support and nurture promising young scientists, has...

Oct/Nov 2005
A major boost for recruiting top doctors
James M. Allwin, president of Aetos Capital, LLC, an investment management firm based in New York, has donated $10...

March/April 2008
Couple with a cause
Roz Milstein and Jerry Meyer met in October 1971 in the Cross Campus Library at Yale. He was a fourth-year medical...

March/April 2011
New line of attack on a dreaded disease
Few diseases are as feared, or as deadly, as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive and most common form of...

May/June 2011
New alliance with Gilead Sciences is ‘transformative’
When Robert J. Alpern, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, was asked recently to prepare a brief overview of the...

Sept/Oct 2011
Scientist joins a most distinguished fold
The elegant vaulted ceilings and leaded glass of the school’s Medical Historical Library provided the proper setting...

Sept/Oct 2012
Gift caps career fighting killer of children
In the developed world, diarrhea is thought of as an easily treated nuisance. But in the developing world it is a major...

Nov/Dec 2012
Neuroscientist joins Institute of Medicine
“We’re never going to understand all the molecules necessary for an entire behavior,” says Marina Picciotto, Ph.D., the...

March 2013
New CEO will lead medical school’s clinical practice
Paul Taheri, M.D., M.B.A., has joined the School of Medicine as deputy dean and chief executive officer of Yale Medical...

Nov/Dec 2009
Smilow Cancer Hospital, a ‘great achievement,’ welcomes patients
Gray skies overhead could not dampen the celebratory mood on the grounds of Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) on the...

July/August 2008
Leading scientist is appointed new chair of Cell Biology
James E. Rothman, Ph.D., one of the world’s foremost experts on membrane trafficking, the means by which proteins and...

July/August 2007
Acquisition of Bayer site will accelerate biomedical research
Yale University’s recent purchase of the 136-acre Bayer HealthCare campus in the municipalities of West Haven and...
Jan/Feb 2007
$3 billion Yale campaign will benefit science and medicine
Nearly a decade after the close of its last major fundraising campaign, Yale has launched “Yale Tomorrow,” a five-year...

Sept/Oct 2006
Top asthma researcher is new leader of internal medicine
Jack A. Elias, M.D., the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine and chief of the Section of Pulmonary and Critical...

March/April 2006
$2 million gift will support training of physician-scientists
Of all the professions, learning medicine requires the greatest time commitment. After four years of medical school,...

May/June 2009
New Cancer Center head: ‘aspire to cure cancers’
Thomas J. Lynch Jr., M.D., an alumnus of Yale College and the School of Medicine who is renowned for his research on...

March/April 2011
Kavli neuroscience institute to cast an even wider scientific net
Building upon a grant made in 2003 that established the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale, The Kavli Foundation...

May/June 2011
Donation from leading Asian foundation will advance stem cell science
The Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF), Asia’s largest philanthropic organization, has made a $1.5 million donation to the...

May 2012
Honoring an RNA pioneer, backing science’s next generation
In 2007, Natalia B. Ivanova, Ph.D., arrived at the School of Medicine with ambitious plans. A rising star in stem cell...

June 2012
Student research on heart surgery gets a boost from new endowment
In the 1960s, when cardiac surgery was still a young field, Horace C. Stansel Jr., M.D., was already making his mark at...

Nov/Dec 2012
Levin leaves indelible mark on Yale medicine
In 2004, when Yale President Richard Levin was hoping to recruit Robert J. Alpern, M.D., as the 16th dean of the School...

Nov/Dec 2009
Brothers follow parents’ example to help fight cancer
It would be an understatement to say that philanthropy runs in the family of Richard S. Sackler, M.D., and his brother,...

July/August 2008
New aid policy will lower tuition debt, widen career choices
The School of Medicine has overhauled its financial aid policy with a major boost in aid to middle-income families by...

Sept/Oct 2006
Glaucoma specialist is named chair of ophthalmology
James C. Tsai, M.D., M.B.A., an authority on glaucoma, has been named chair of the medical school’s Department of...

July/August 2006
“Teacher’s teacher” to oversee curriculum as education dean
In June, Associate Professor of Psychiatry Richard Belitsky, M.D., was named deputy dean for education at the medical...

May/June 2006
Medical school names new dean of public health
Paul D. Cleary, Ph.D., an expert on how people interact with systems that provide health care, has been named dean of...

March/April 2008
New faculty prize will recognize superb patient care
The medical school has announced the creation of the David J. Leffell Prize for Clinical Excellence, an annual award...

May/June 2009
Alpern reappointed to new term as dean of medical school
Robert J. Alpern, M.D., who has led the School of Medicine through a period of sustained growth and increased stature...

March/April 2011
In life and work, alumnus touched countless hearts
There could be no greater gratification for a physician–scientist than seeing the fruits of his or her own research...

July/August 2011
Innate immunity pioneer receives international prize
Ruslan M. Medzhitov, Ph.D., the David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology, is one of three scientists awarded the...

March 2012
Now a department, urology recruits its inaugural leader
In January, Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D., and Marna P. Borgstrom, M.P.H., president and CEO of the Yale-New Haven Health...

Nov/Dec 2012
Newly appointed Ob/Gyn chair has deep roots at Yale
At the beginning of October, Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., took up his new posts as chair of the Department of Obstetrics,...


