Gerard Vockley

Gerard Vockley, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in medical genetics and the field of inborn errors of metabolism. He joined Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh as chief of the Division of Medical Genetics in 2004 and was named professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and professor of human genetics at the university's Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Vockley, a native of Homestead, Pa., earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1978 and completed his medical degree and a doctorate in genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, in 1984. Following his residency in pediatrics at the Denver Children's Hospital in 1987, he completed a fellowship in pediatrics and human genetics at Yale University School of Medicine.

In 1991, Dr. Vockley joined the faculty of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, where he was engaged in teaching, clinical service and research until he moved to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. At Mayo, he earned a reputation as an exceptional clinician, establishing Mayo's Inborn Errors of Metabolism Clinic, which is internationally recognized for excellence in the diagnosis and care of patients with those disorders. At the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, he served as an assistant professor in medical genetics and as an associate professor of medical genetics before being named professor of medical genetics and chair of the Department of Medical Genetics in 1999. Among his accomplishments as an educator, Dr. Vockley initiated the development of a continuing education curriculum to update all staff physicians at Mayo in molecular biology and genetics and encouraged them to incorporate genetic information into their routine clinical practice.

Dr. Vockley's long record of groundbreaking research has earned him distinction in his field. His integrated approach to the study of inborn errors of fatty acid beta-oxidation and branched chain amino acid metabolism has led to the discovery of several new genes in the metabolic pathways and redefined these critical cellular processes. His laboratory has identified and characterized the molecular basis of three new inborn errors of metabolism in recent years. Dr.Vockley has been awarded continuous National Institutes of Health (NIH) RO1 funding since his earliest days as an independent investigator. He currently holds three NIH grants.

Dr. Vockley is board-certified in pediatrics, clinical genetics and biochemical/molecular genetics. He has published more than 70 articles in leading genetic and biochemical journals and has received numerous honors for his work. His professional and scientific society memberships include the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, American Society of Human Genetics, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism. Dr. Vockley chairs the NIH advisory board that oversees the Human Genetic Cell Repository for the National Institute of General Medical Science and is an associate editor of Molecular Genetics and Metabolism.