F. Cole's Biography > Faculty Bio

Faculty Bio

Francis Sessions Cole, III, M.D.

Park J. White, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Children's Health

Vice Chairman, Department of Pediatrics

Director, Division of Newborn Medicine

Washington University School of Medicine

Chief Medical Officer, St. Louis Children's Hospital

Newborn Medicine
Pathobiology

Genetic regulation of neonatal pulmonary surfactant deficiency has been suggested by studies of gender, genetic linkage, recurrent familial cases, targeted gene ablation in murine lineages, and by racial disparity in risk of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Successful fetal-neonatal pulmonary transition requires production of the pulmonary surfactant, a phospholipid-protein film that lines alveoli and maintains alveolar patency at end expiration. Our goal is to understand the genetic mechanisms that disrupt pulmonary surfactant metabolism and cause neonatal respiratory distress syndrome

Appointments

Park J. White, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Children's Health
Vice Chairman, Department of Pediatrics
Director, Division of Newborn Medicine
Chief Medical Officer, St. Louis Children's Hospital

Affiliations

St. Louis Children’s Hospital; Barnes-Jewish Hospital

		Education
B.A., Amherst College, 1969 M.D., Yale University School of Medicine, 1973

		Training
Internship, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 1973-1974 Residency, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 1976-1978 Research Fellow in Neonatology and Cell Biology, the Joint Program in Neonatology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 1978-1981

		Licensure and Board Certification
1975 Massachusetts 1986 Missouri 1973 National Board of Medical Examiners 1980 American Board of Pediatrics 1983 American Board of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine

		Honors
1993 Clinical Teacher of the Year Award, Washington University School of Medicine 1997 FDR Leadership Award from the March of Dimes (co-winner with Senator Christopher Bond, Senior Senator from Missouri) 1997 Distinguished Faculty Award-Founder's Day, Washington University 1998 Distinguished Service Teaching Award, Washington University School of Medicine Class of 2001 1999 Clinical Teaching Award, Washington University School of Medicine Class of 2000 1999 Torch of Youth Award, National Council on Youth Leadership 2000 Cartíer First Aide Award, St. Louis Effort For AIDS 2004 Distinguished Service Teaching Award, Washington University School of Medicine, Class of 2007 2009 Washington University School of Medicine Distinguished Faculty Award Recipient for Distinguished Community Service 2010 Princeton Award from the Princeton Club of St. Louis in recognition of outstanding leadership in service to the community

		Selected Publications
1. Hamvas A, Heins HB, Guttentag SH, Wegner DJ, Trusgnich MA, Bennet KW, Yang P, Carlson CS, An P, Cole FS: Developmental and genetic regulation of surfactant protein-B in vivo. Neonatol 2009; 95:117- 124. PMID: 18776725; PMCID: PMC2765709 2.. Druley TE, Vallania FML, Wegner DJ, Varley KE, Knowles OL, Bonds JA, Robison SW, Doniger SW, Hamvas A, Cole FS, Fay JC, Mitra RD: Accurate detection and quantification of rare allelic variants from the pooled genomic DNA of 1,111 individuals. Nat Methods 2009; 6:263-265. PMID: 19252504; PMCID: PMC2776647. 3. Hamvas A, Nogee LM, Wegner DJ, DePass K, Christodoulou J, Bennetts B, McQuade LR, Gray PH, Deterding RR, Carroll TR, Kammesheidt A, Kasch LM, Kulkarni S, Cole FS. Inherited surfactant deficiency due to uniparental disomy of rare mutations in the surfactant protein-B and ATP-binding cassette, subfamily A, member 3 genes. J Pediatr 2009; 155:854-9. PMID: 19647838; NIHMS155115; PMCID: PMC2794197 4.. Tomazela D, Patterson BW, HansonE, SpenceKL, KanionTB, SalingerDH, ViciniP, BarretH, HeinsHB, ColeFS, HamvasA, MacCossMJ. Measurement of human surfactant protein-B turnover in vivo from tracheal aspirates using targeted proteomics. Anal Chem 2010; 82:2561-2567. PMID: 20178338; PMCID: PMC2843406 5. Wambach JA, Yang P, Wegner DJ, An P, Hackett BP, Cole FS, Hamvas A. Surfactant protein-C promoter variants associated with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome reduce transcription. Pediatr Res, in press.