The Willard and Rhoda Ware Professorship of Diabetes & Metabolic Diseases
The Professorship was created in 1976 through the generosity of Willard Ware (1909–1984) and his wife Rhoda Ware (1911–2008).
A distinguished alumnus of The Wharton School, Willard M. Ware was affiliated throughout his career with American Water Works Company, the business founded by his father that became the largest water utility holding company in the U.S. Through the Ware Foundation, Willard and Rhoda Ware supported programs that addressed a wide range of concerns, including poverty, health and the needs of children. Their tradition is continued by the next generation of the family today.
At the Perelman School of Medicine, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professorship has supported leaders in the field of diabetes research.
Current Chairholder
Daniel P. Kelly, MD
Daniel P. Kelly, MD obtained his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, residency training at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and postdoctoral and clinical cardiology training at Washington University School of Medicine. He joined the Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1989 and rapidly moved up the ranks to Professor of Medicine, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology, and Pediatrics, Chief of the Cardiovascular Division, and first Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research. In 2008, Dr. Kelly assumed the role of founding Scientific Director for Sanford Burnham Presby Medical Discovery Institute located in Lake Nona, Florida. In August 2017, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he was named Director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) and the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor.
Dr. Kelly’s research interests stem from an early fascination with rare inborn errors in mitochondrial metabolism in children which cause sudden death and heart failure. As a young researcher at Washington University, Dr. Kelly defined the genetic basis for a common inborn error in mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation, work that led to the development of practical screening tests to detect risk for sudden death in newborns. Thereafter, he became interested in how similar derangements in cardiac metabolism contribute to heart failure related to common diseases such as hypertension, heart attack, and diabetes. His work defined a master regulatory axis involved in the control of fuel metabolism in heart through pioneering studies on nuclear receptors including the PPARs, estrogen-related receptors (ERRs), and their transcriptional coactivator PGC-1. The Kelly laboratory has identified molecular “switches” in this regulatory circuity that potentially define distinct forms of heart failure, an important step towards a precision medicine approach for the treatment of heart failure. His laboratory is currently engaged in translation of these discoveries to humans, including early-stage drug discovery efforts aimed at heart failure with preserved ejection fraction or HFpEF. In April, 2022 Dr. Kelly assumed the position of founding Director of a new Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) CVI with the goal of linking this new entity to the Penn CVI, establishing a first-of-its-kind Institute that addresses unmet needs in cardiovascular health and disease throughout the lifespan. He is the Rachel Ash Presidential Chair at CHOP. Dr. Kelly is a recipient of the American Heart Association Basic Science Prize and serves, or has served, on the Editorial Boards of Genes & Development, Circulation, Circulation Research, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Basic to Translational Science.
Previous Chairholders
- Albert I. Winegrad, MD 1976 –1992
- Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD 1995–2005; 2012–2014