Deborah Veis Novack, MD/PhD ’95, HS ’00

Deborah Veis Novack, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases and associate professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, has garnered an international reputation for her impressive contributions to the understanding of bone diseases such as osteoporosis, inflammatory arthritis, and cancer metastasis to bone.

Novack earned her medical and doctoral degrees in Washington University’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). She rapidly gained recognition for her initial postdoctoral research into the mechanisms behind bone loss and is one of the few pathologists in the country with expertise in the microscopic anatomy of both human and animal bone. She is a board-certified anatomic pathologist with a doctorate in immunology.

She recently discovered that a new class of drugs in development for cancer patients also causes severe bone loss. That discovery has the potential to rewrite the clinical guidelines and warnings for the use of these drugs. Further research has broadened the understanding of the mechanism of pathological bone loss.

Her unique skill set and ongoing research advancements have led to her appointment as director of Washington University’s Musculoskeletal Research Center’s Histology and Morphometry Core. She is among only a few practicing pathologists to be elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and is the recipient of a Young Investigator Award and Career Enhancement Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. A testament to her strong research track record, she has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with RO1 principal investigator grants for ten years and recently served as a permanent member of the NIH’s Skeletal Biology, Structure, and Regeneration Study Section. She has also served on the councils for the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

For all of her research accomplishments, Novack is the consummate educator. She has mentored many graduate and undergraduate students as well as pathology residents and postdoctoral fellows. She organizes the Avioli Musculoskeletal Seminar Series, serves as course master of the Skeletal Pathophysiology Mini-course, and is the educational activities coordinator of the Skeletal Disorders Training Program.

For her invaluable contributions as a faculty member, researcher and educator, the Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association is pleased to bestow the Alumni Achievement Award to Dr. Novack.