The Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital has been at the forefront of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes research since its days under the leadership of Dr. Alexis Hartmann beginning in the 1920s.  Indeed, St. Louis Children's Hospital was the first pediatric institution in the United States to utilize insulin to treat children with diabetes mellitus.  The Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism within the Department of Pediatrics began as an academic division in 1967.  It was renamed the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes in 2004. Under the initial direction of Drs. Virginia V. Weldon and Anthony S. Pagliara, the division was one of the first divisions of pediatric endocrinology to combine its patient care, research and training efforts in the area of classical endocrinology and in the areas of diabetes and metabolism.  This has now become a standard format for divisions of pediatric endocrinology at academic medical centers across the country.  Subsequently, the division was under the co-directorship of Drs. Julio V. Santiago and Dennis M. Bier (1985-1993) and the sole directorships of Dr. Julio Santiago (1993-1997) and Dr. Neil H. White (1997-2004).  Dr. Louis J. Muglia, the current division director, was appointed in 2004.

The division has operated a fellowship training program continuously since 1967.  There have been nearly 50 fellowship trainees during that time.  Many of these trainees have gone on to distinguished academic careers in pediatric endocrinology, and the majority remain active in pediatric endocrinology practice or research.  Eleven former trainees have become division directors at academic medical centers around the country.  The division has had a long and close association with the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) since 1959 and the Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC) since 1975 at Washington University.  The senior pediatric faculty have held key administrative roles in these centers for most of the last 30 years: Dr. Santiago was director of the DRTC and associate program director of the GCRC; Dr. White is currently associate program director of the GCRC.

The expertise of the division over its long history has been primarily in the areas of diabetes mellitus, neuroendocrine and other growth disorders, and metabolic bone diseases.  This expertise dates back to the close working relationship between Drs. Weldon and Pagliara, and Drs. William Daughaday and David Kipnis in the Department of Internal Medicine.  This close collaboration between investigators in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine has continued through the present day.  As a result, Washington University School of Medicine and the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology remain at the forefront of basic and patient-oriented research in these diseases.

Much of the diabetes-related, clinical research base of the division was developed under the leadership of the late Julio V. Santiago.  Dr. Santiago was a professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine, director of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, director of the Diabetes Research and Training Center and associate director of the General Clinical Research Center.  He was author or co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and books or book chapters, was editor-in-chief of Diabetes, and served on numerous advisory panels and special review groups for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and various pharmaceutical companies.  He was one of the principal investigators and a national leader for both the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) and the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).  Dr. Santiago was an innovator at the forefront of many of the advances in diabetes care that have occurred over the last two decades. Many of Dr. Santiago's previous trainees are now established investigators in diabetes and endocrine research worldwide. In recognition of his efforts, Dr. Santiago received the award for Outstanding Physician Clinician in Diabetes from the American Diabetes Association in 1998, and he is honored yearly by the Santiago Lecture in the Department of Pediatrics.  This tradition of excellence remains nationally evident with the continued contributions of Dr. White to clinical diabetes research and fellowship education, and Drs. Arbelaez, Hollander, Hruz, Green, and Marshall to broad aspects of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes mellitus research and patient care.

The division has a long-standing interest in clinical and basic research related to metabolic bone disease and a long-standing educational and research relationship with the Metabolic Research Unit (now called the Center for Metabolic Bone Disease and Molecular Research) at Shriners Hospital of St. Louis.  With the addition of Dr. Rebecca Green to the faculty we have expanded our involvement in patient-oriented research related to bone disease.

Over the last few years, the division has continued its active and productive involvement in patient-oriented research related to diabetes and has expanded its research repertoire in the areas of basic research with nationally recognized, NIH-funded programs directed by Drs. Louis Muglia and Paul Hruz.  The division was one of seven centers to receive funding for a Research Training and Career Development in Pediatric Diabetes Program from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the American Diabetes Association.  This program provides up to two years of funding to support training of pediatric endocrine fellows (T32) and an additional two years of support for career development of junior faculty (K12) in pediatric diabetes-related research.