Rate My Professor Alan Schwartz

Alan L. Schwartz, PhD, MD, is the Alumni Endowed Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Pediatrics in Central Administration, and Professor of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, with appointments in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology. He previously served as the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics. Schwartz earned his B.A. in 1970, Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1974, and M.D. in 1976 from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He completed his residency in Pediatrics in 1978 at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, a fellowship in Pediatrics in 1978 at Harvard Medical School, and a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology in 1979 at Children's Hospital Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, his clinical specialties include pediatric hematology, sickle cell anemia, pediatric oncology, cancer, and leukemia.

The Alan L. Schwartz Lab investigates the cell and molecular biology of intracellular protein targeting, processing, and degradation in the endosomal/lysosomal pathway and cytoplasm, receptor-mediated endocytosis and its regulation, and syncytia formation in placental trophoblasts. Research addresses mechanisms of pediatric diseases involving metabolism and protein turnover. Key publications include "Noninvasive electromyometrial imaging of human uterine maturation during term labor" (Nature Communications, 2023), "Electromyometrial Imaging of Uterine Contractions in Pregnant Women" (Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2023), "Regulation of TFEB in human placental Cytotrophoblasts and Syncytiotrophoblasts" (Physiological Reports, 2025), and "Trafficking of asialoglycoproteins and the asialoglycoprotein receptor" (1991). Elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1985, he received honors from the Academy of Science of St. Louis and has directed NIH-funded training programs such as the Training Program in Developmental Hematology. With over 18,000 citations, his contributions have advanced pediatric hematology, oncology, developmental biology, and cell trafficking research.