
Hershel Raff, PhD, FAAAS, FAPS
Professor, Medicine, Physiology and Surgery; Director, Endocrine Research Laboratory
Locations
- Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center
2801 W. KK River Pkwy., Suite 260
Milwaukee, WI 53215
Contact Information
General Interests
Education
University of California-San Francisco, Postdoctoral Fellowship in Endocrinology
Biography
Specialties
Adrenal, Stress, Cushing’s syndrome, Adrenal Insufficiency
Secondary Appointments
- Physiology and Surgery in the MCW School of Medicine
- MCW School of Pharmacy
- Biomedical Sciences, Marquette University
Hershel Raff is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Molecular Medicine and also a Professor in the MCW Pharmacy School. He holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Physiology and Surgery. He is the Director of the Endocrine Research Laboratory at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center of the Aurora Research Institute. He received a BA in Music from Union College in Schenectady, NY. He earned his PhD in Environmental Physiology from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was a post-doctoral fellow in Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Raff came to MCW in 1983 as an Assistant Professor and rose to the rank of Professor in 1991. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Marquette University.
Leadership Positions
External
- American Physiological Society, Membership and FAPS Committee
- Faculty of 1000, Physiology, Head of the Endocrinology Section
- Editorial Board, American Journal of Physiology
- Editorial Board, Physiological Reviews
- Editorial Board, FASEB BioAdvances
- UpToDate Author/Editor for Clinical Laboratory Testing – Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal Function
- Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS) – Grant Reviewer
- Associate Editor of Endocrinology
MCW Internal
- Course Director, M2 Endocrinology/Reproduction Curriculum
- Faculty Advisor, Medical Student Assembly
- Clinical and Translation Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI), CTSI Scientific Review Oversight Committee
- Medical School Nominating Committee
- Medical School Curriculum and Evaluation Committee (CEC)
- Graduate Studies Council Awards Committee
- Graduate Studies Council Course Evaluation Committee
Aurora Health Care/Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center Internal
- Chairman, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
- Radiation Safety Committee
- Advocate Aurora Research Institute – Seed Grant Review Committee (May 2020)
- Advocate Aurora Research Institute, 2020 Neuroscience Intramural Research Award Executive Council
Research Interests
Dr Raff's laboratory has two main research areas of interest. His basic research on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis focuses on the short- and long-term consequences of neonatal hypoxia. His laboratory has discovered that activation of the synthetic pathway for corticosterone (the main glucocorticoid of the rodent) by neonatal hypoxia is mediated by a novel second-messenger cascade. His clinical research focuses on the development of diagnostic endocrine tests and, in particular, using the measurement of salivary cortisol to evaluate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in a variety of human diseases and stress models.
Dr. Raff is heavily involved in medical, graduate, pharmacy and undergraduate education. He is Course Director of the second year medical student Endocrinology/Reproduction Integrated Unit. He teaches first year endocrine physiology to medical and pharmacy students and Advanced Endocrinology for graduate students and Endocrine Clinical Fellows. Dr. Raff is the author of two textbooks: Vander's Human Physiology, an undergraduate textbook, and Medical Physiology: A Systems Approach, a medical student-level textbook. He also teaches Applied and Rehabilitative Systems Physiology at Marquette University College of Health Science. He was an inaugural inductee into the MCW Society of Teaching Scholars in 1991 and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha as a Faculty Member by the MCW senior medical student class of 2005.
Laboratory Studies
- Evaluating the role of androgens and corticosteroids in the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in an animal model of human prematurity.
- Studying the role of the HPA axis in relapse of opioid addiction in a rat model of sleep disruption.
- Using a newly developed liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to measure salivary cortisol and cortisone in the diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome.
- Evaluation of the ACTH (cosyntropin) stimulation test for the diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency utilizing new generation cortisol assays.
- Measuring serum and salivary biomarkers in patients with mild traumatic brain injury and obesity.
Publications
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(Tjoe JA, Piacentine LB, Papanek PE, Raff H, Richards J, Harkins AL, Yin J, Ng AV.) Support Care Cancer. 2020 Dec;28(12):6095-6104 PMID: 32314053 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85084088106 04/22/2020
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(Kannankeril J, Carroll T, Findling JW, Javorsky B, Gunsolus IL, Phillips J, Raff H.) J Endocr Soc. 2020 Oct 01;4(10):bvaa107 PMID: 32935666 PMCID: PMC7480956 09/17/2020
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(Raff H, Phillips JM, Simpson PM, Weisman SJ, Hainsworth KR.) Pain Rep. 2020 Jul-Aug;5(4):e836 PMID: 32766470 PMCID: PMC7382552 08/09/2020
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(Gehrand AL, Phillips J, Malott K, Raff H.) Endocrinology. 2020 07 01;161(7) PMID: 32459830 PMCID: PMC7310600 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85087096075 05/28/2020
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(Wissner Greene L, Geer EB, Page-Wilson G, Findling JW, Raff H.) J Endocr Soc. 2020 Feb 01;4(2):bvz012 PMID: 32099949 PMCID: PMC7033035 02/27/2020
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(Rolon S, Huynh C, Guenther M, Gardezi M, Phillips J, Gehrand AL, Raff H.) Physiol Rep. 2019 12;7(24):e14318 PMID: 31876126 PMCID: PMC6930936 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85077197377 12/27/2019
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A commentary on Diagnosing Cushing's disease in the context of renal failure.
(Raff H, Cohen EP, Findling JW.) Eur J Endocrinol. 2019 Oct;181(4):C9-C11 PMID: 31349218 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85072229843 07/28/2019
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(Raff H, Phillips JM.) J Endocr Soc. 2019 Aug 01;3(8):1631-1640 PMID: 31403090 PMCID: PMC6682408 08/14/2019
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(Gehrand AL, Phillips J, Malott K, Raff H.) Endocrinology. 2019 07 01;160(7):1719-1730 PMID: 31166572 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85068887045 06/06/2019
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(Greene LW, Geer EB, Page-Wilson G, Findling JW, Raff H.) J Endocr Soc. 2019 Apr 01;3(4):763-772 PMID: 30963134 PMCID: PMC6446888 04/10/2019
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Glucocorticoid Receptor Mutations and Hypersensitivity to Endogenous and Exogenous Glucocorticoids.
(Santen RJ, Jewell CM, Yue W, Heitjan DF, Raff H, Katen KS, Cidlowski JA.) J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2018 10 01;103(10):3630-3639 PMID: 30020469 PMCID: PMC6179182 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85054465582 07/19/2018
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(Gehrand AL, Hoeynck B, Jablonski M, Leonovicz C, Cullinan WE, Raff H.) Endocrinology. 2018 07 01;159(7):2777-2789 PMID: 29878093 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85060919096 06/08/2018