Rate My Professor David Schwartz

Schwartz's research focuses on the genetics and genomics of pulmonary fibrosis, gene discovery in innate immunity, and epigenetics of environmental lung disease. He is renowned for identifying the common MUC5B promoter variant rs35705950 as a major risk factor for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), with key publications including the 2011 Nature Genetics genome-wide association study identifying multiple susceptibility loci, the 2013 NEJM paper on MUC5B and interstitial lung abnormalities, and the 2013 JAMA study linking it to IPF survival. Other notable works include studies on HLA variants in IPF (ERJ Open Res, 2024), progressive lung fibrosis (J Clin Invest, 2025), and airway-centric views of IPF (Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol, 2022). His contributions have shaped precision medicine in pulmonary fibrosis, earning him election to the Association of American Physicians, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Thoracic Society Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award (2003), and numerous named lectureships such as the ATS Amberson Lecture (2013) and Champion of Environmental Health Research Award (2016). Schwartz has served on editorial boards for journals like American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and American Journal of Medicine, and on NIH and VA review panels. With over 63,000 Google Scholar citations, his work has profoundly influenced understanding of genetic predisposition to lung diseases.