UPMC’s Dr. David Whitcomb Honored as Outstanding Mentor

By: Courtney Caprara

whitcomb-davidDavid C. Whitcomb, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh, received the 2016 Pancreatic Disorders Section Research Mentor Award at the Digestive Disease Week conference in San Diego. This award has been presented since 2010 to outstanding mentors in specific areas of gastroenterology research.

Dr. Whitcomb has been leading pancreatic disorder research at Pitt since he joined the faculty in 1991, and he has received over two decades of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health. His research interests include hereditary pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Currently, Dr. Whitcomb’s laboratory is working to develop new ways to detect pancreatic cancer in its early stages.

After receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. in physiology and his M.D. from Ohio State University, Dr. Whitcomb completed an internship, residency and gastroenterology fellowship at Duke University. During his time at Pitt, Dr. Whitcomb co-founded and directed the Center for Genomic Sciences, now the Genomic and Proteomic Core Laboratories. He also founded the North American Pancreatic Study Group to conduct research.

Digestive Disease Week brings together the world’s largest group of physicians and researchers who are focused on gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.