
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
- Faculty Opinions (Faculty of 1000), Physiology, Head of the Endocrinology Section
- Editorial Board, FASEB BioAdvances
- UpToDate Author/Editor for Clinical Laboratory Testing – Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal Function
- Associate Editor of Endocrinology
- The Pituitary Society - Position Statement Committee – Effects of Opioids on Pituitary Function (2021)
- Editorial Board, Journal of the Endocrine Society
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
- Graduate Studies Council - Rank Committee
- Medical School Curriculum Task Force – Principle 1 Committee
- Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) Merit Reviewer
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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(Medda R, Raff H, Shaker J, Guda N.) Am J Gastroenterol. 2022 May 01;117(5):813-814 PMID: 35080511 01/27/2022
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(Raff H.) Pituitary. 2022 Mar 25 PMID: 35334030 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85127277574 03/26/2022
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Opioids and pituitary function: expert opinion.
(Gadelha MR, Karavitaki N, Fudin J, Bettinger JJ, Raff H, Ben-Shlomo A.) Pituitary. 2022 Feb;25(1):52-63 PMID: 35066756 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85123498706 01/24/2022
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(Gehrand AL, Phillips J, Welhouse KD, Siddiqui H, Schulgit M, Hoffman J, Hunt H, Raff H.) Endocrinology. 2022 01 01;163(1) PMID: 34791109 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85122710601 11/19/2021
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Consensus on diagnosis and management of Cushing's disease: a guideline update.
(Fleseriu M, Auchus R, Bancos I, Ben-Shlomo A, Bertherat J, Biermasz NR, Boguszewski CL, Bronstein MD, Buchfelder M, Carmichael JD, Casanueva FF, Castinetti F, Chanson P, Findling J, Gadelha M, Geer EB, Giustina A, Grossman A, Gurnell M, Ho K, Ioachimescu AG, Kaiser UB, Karavitaki N, Katznelson L, Kelly DF, Lacroix A, McCormack A, Melmed S, Molitch M, Mortini P, Newell-Price J, Nieman L, Pereira AM, Petersenn S, Pivonello R, Raff H, Reincke M, Salvatori R, Scaroni C, Shimon I, Stratakis CA, Swearingen B, Tabarin A, Takahashi Y, Theodoropoulou M, Tsagarakis S, Valassi E, Varlamov EV, Vila G, Wass J, Webb SM, Zatelli MC, Biller BMK.) Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2021 12;9(12):847-875 PMID: 34687601 PMCID: PMC8743006 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85122111053 10/24/2021
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(Javorsky BR, Raff H, Carroll TB, Algeciras-Schimnich A, Jit Singh R, Colón-Franco JM, Findling JW.) J Endocr Soc. 2021 Sep 01;5(9):bvab113 PMID: 34278181 PMCID: PMC8279072 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85112025664 07/20/2021
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(Javorsky BR, Raff H, Carroll TB, Algeciras-Schimnich A, Singh RJ, Colón-Franco JM, Findling JW.) J Endocr Soc. 2021 Apr 01;5(4):bvab022 PMID: 33768189 PMCID: PMC7975762 03/27/2021
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(Hainsworth KR, Simpson PM, Raff H, Grayson MH, Zhang L, Weisman SJ.) Pain Rep. 2021;6(1):e916 PMID: 33977184 PMCID: PMC8104468 05/13/2021
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(Rolon S, Huynh C, Guenther M, Gardezi M, Phillips J, Gehrand AL, Raff H.) Physiol Rep. 2021 01;9(1):e14663 PMID: 33393733 PMCID: PMC7780235 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85099269848 01/05/2021
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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 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85099731746 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