The John C. Rutledge, MD Memorial Scholarship Fund
Donation protected
Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues;
It is with a broken heart and great sorrow that we share the news of the untimely passing of Dr. John (Jack) Rutledge, MD who died of cancer on January 23, 2021. Born in a small rural town-- Kennedy, Texas-- September 21, 1949, Dr. Rutledge obtained his bachelor in Biology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1972 and his Medical Degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1976. He did his internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Tennessee in Memphis (1977) and moved to California and completed an Internal Medicine Residency at Martinez in 1981 and cardiology fellowship at the University of California, Davis in 1983, subsequently joining the faculty in the Department as Assistant Professor in 1984.
Jack wanted to give other young men like him who came from very small rural towns in Texas the opportunities for success he had. The John C. Rutledge Memorial Scholarship Fund that will be established in his name is intended for this purpose.
Dr Rutledge devoted nearly 40 years of his career to his patients, teaching, research, and dedicated service to the University of California, Davis and during that time he contributed greatly to the development of the Department of Internal Medicine and shaping the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Prior to his retirement in December of 2020 for health reasons, he held several leadership roles including as Chair of the Physiology Graduate Group (1998-2001), Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Clinical Nutrition and Vascular Medicine (1999-2010), and Co-Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Internal Medicine (2002-2020).
Over his long and outstanding career, Dr. Rutledge co-authored over 150 manuscripts which have had a major impact on the field of vascular biology, atherosclerosis, and lipid metabolism. He made a number of important contributions to science driven by his boundless scientific curiosity, enormous intellect, and his uncanny ability to form and sustain research collaborations with investigators in a great number of diverse fields both at UC Davis and nationally. Early in his career, he received an NIH Physician Scientist Award, and Dr. Rutledge’s research focused on the study of how macromolecules and lipids and/or lipoproteins interact with the blood vessel wall. This work clearly laid out the pathways of lipoprotein transport across blood vessels. His laboratory then became interested in how triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRL) and the lipolysis products generated from TGRL injure cells of the blood vessel wall. His papers showed that TGRL lipolysis products have a direct effect on vascular and neurovascular inflammation. This work has major implications in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. His work investigating the post prandial state and vascular inflammation, showed how lipid droplet formation in the postprandial state proceeds via activation of Erk2 and NFkB and apoE4 assumes a more expanded conformation. These findings further defined the pro inflammatory environment frequently found in obese and diabetic individuals. Our work overlapped in our joint interest in the actions of sex hormones on vascular disease. His studies showed that estradiol reduced glycoxidative damage to the artery wall and ovariectomy enhanced glycoxidative injury. Further, estradiol and ovariectomy altered gene regulation in endotheliai cells and the mouse aorta. One observation that was particularly interesting is the effect of ovariectomy and hypoglycemia to induce endothelial layer disruption and increased permeability. His more recent work focused on defining the vascular determinants of neurovascular inflammation, particularly following high lipid and high glycemic index diets, work with implications for the mechanisms underlying vascular dementia. He published seminal papers in each of these research fields and developed unique techniques for which he was nationally known including the cannulation of individual microvascular capillaries and sophisticated studies of blood brain barrier permeability.
He was PI on numerous National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigator initiated RO1 grants and during his illustrious career served on several prestigious research committees including the research peer review committee for the American Heart Association (AHA), California Affiliate (1988-1992), as Chairman of the Research Peer Review Committee for the AHA, Western States Affiliate (1996-2000), as Co-Chair of the Mouse Models of Diabetic Complications Consortium Study Section for NIDDK (2001), on the NIH Cancer Nanotechnology Platforms Peer Review Committee (2006), as a permanent member of the NHLBI Hypertension and Microcirculation Study Section (2008-2013), and as Chief Scientific Director of the NIH funded UC Davis Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (2015-2020).
In 2000 the Treadwell Foundation established the Richard A. and Nora Eccles Harrison Endowed Chair for DiabetesResearch at UC Davis and Dr. Rutledge was named the inaugural chair holder. Demonstrating his selflessness and dedication to promoting the careers of early career trainees, he organized the chair so that all of the spin off funds from the endowed chair would be directed towards supporting medical students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, housestaff, and junior faculty with small grants to pursue their research. Particular attention was paid to funding investigators who were temporarily without funding. This mechanism has funded over 70 investigators at UC Davis over the last 20 years. Although not a typical research contribution, he considered this one of the most important research accomplishments of his career.
Dr. Rutledge devoted his career to mentoring and developing science trainees and early career faculty, launching the careers of many into independence and remarkable subsequent success in both academia and industry. One prior graduate student is now Vice President for Cardiovascular Drug Discovery for Ionis Pharmaceuticals, another is a Presidential Fellow for Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, and yet another Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development at UC Merced. His students remark how caring and understanding he was in advising them, and influential in helping to shape their future careers and research interests. He demonstrated his genuineness, kindness, and authentic concern for others in all of his interactions with colleagues, students, and staff alike. For all of his teaching, research and service, Dr. Rutledge received the Dean’s Excellence in Mentoring Award at UC Davis, one of the first years this award was granted.
During our medical training, Jack and I (Amparo Villablanca, MD) met on the patient wards at UC Davis. Over our 36 year marriage we shared a wonderful and full life together, our love for each other, our careers, and academia. More importantly, we carried on the philosophy of our parents that family means everything and that kindness to others is one of the most important qualities of a virtuous life. All of us at UC Davis and beyond, especially the many patients, family, friends, and colleagues whose lives were touched by Dr. Rutledge, will greatly miss his gentle way, his kindness, his sweet disposition, his genuineness and sincerity, and the example he gave us of a personal and professional life well lived.
Submitted By:
Amparo Villablanca, MD
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
It is with a broken heart and great sorrow that we share the news of the untimely passing of Dr. John (Jack) Rutledge, MD who died of cancer on January 23, 2021. Born in a small rural town-- Kennedy, Texas-- September 21, 1949, Dr. Rutledge obtained his bachelor in Biology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1972 and his Medical Degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1976. He did his internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Tennessee in Memphis (1977) and moved to California and completed an Internal Medicine Residency at Martinez in 1981 and cardiology fellowship at the University of California, Davis in 1983, subsequently joining the faculty in the Department as Assistant Professor in 1984.
Jack wanted to give other young men like him who came from very small rural towns in Texas the opportunities for success he had. The John C. Rutledge Memorial Scholarship Fund that will be established in his name is intended for this purpose.
Dr Rutledge devoted nearly 40 years of his career to his patients, teaching, research, and dedicated service to the University of California, Davis and during that time he contributed greatly to the development of the Department of Internal Medicine and shaping the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Prior to his retirement in December of 2020 for health reasons, he held several leadership roles including as Chair of the Physiology Graduate Group (1998-2001), Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Clinical Nutrition and Vascular Medicine (1999-2010), and Co-Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Internal Medicine (2002-2020).
Over his long and outstanding career, Dr. Rutledge co-authored over 150 manuscripts which have had a major impact on the field of vascular biology, atherosclerosis, and lipid metabolism. He made a number of important contributions to science driven by his boundless scientific curiosity, enormous intellect, and his uncanny ability to form and sustain research collaborations with investigators in a great number of diverse fields both at UC Davis and nationally. Early in his career, he received an NIH Physician Scientist Award, and Dr. Rutledge’s research focused on the study of how macromolecules and lipids and/or lipoproteins interact with the blood vessel wall. This work clearly laid out the pathways of lipoprotein transport across blood vessels. His laboratory then became interested in how triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRL) and the lipolysis products generated from TGRL injure cells of the blood vessel wall. His papers showed that TGRL lipolysis products have a direct effect on vascular and neurovascular inflammation. This work has major implications in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. His work investigating the post prandial state and vascular inflammation, showed how lipid droplet formation in the postprandial state proceeds via activation of Erk2 and NFkB and apoE4 assumes a more expanded conformation. These findings further defined the pro inflammatory environment frequently found in obese and diabetic individuals. Our work overlapped in our joint interest in the actions of sex hormones on vascular disease. His studies showed that estradiol reduced glycoxidative damage to the artery wall and ovariectomy enhanced glycoxidative injury. Further, estradiol and ovariectomy altered gene regulation in endotheliai cells and the mouse aorta. One observation that was particularly interesting is the effect of ovariectomy and hypoglycemia to induce endothelial layer disruption and increased permeability. His more recent work focused on defining the vascular determinants of neurovascular inflammation, particularly following high lipid and high glycemic index diets, work with implications for the mechanisms underlying vascular dementia. He published seminal papers in each of these research fields and developed unique techniques for which he was nationally known including the cannulation of individual microvascular capillaries and sophisticated studies of blood brain barrier permeability.
He was PI on numerous National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigator initiated RO1 grants and during his illustrious career served on several prestigious research committees including the research peer review committee for the American Heart Association (AHA), California Affiliate (1988-1992), as Chairman of the Research Peer Review Committee for the AHA, Western States Affiliate (1996-2000), as Co-Chair of the Mouse Models of Diabetic Complications Consortium Study Section for NIDDK (2001), on the NIH Cancer Nanotechnology Platforms Peer Review Committee (2006), as a permanent member of the NHLBI Hypertension and Microcirculation Study Section (2008-2013), and as Chief Scientific Director of the NIH funded UC Davis Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (2015-2020).
In 2000 the Treadwell Foundation established the Richard A. and Nora Eccles Harrison Endowed Chair for DiabetesResearch at UC Davis and Dr. Rutledge was named the inaugural chair holder. Demonstrating his selflessness and dedication to promoting the careers of early career trainees, he organized the chair so that all of the spin off funds from the endowed chair would be directed towards supporting medical students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, housestaff, and junior faculty with small grants to pursue their research. Particular attention was paid to funding investigators who were temporarily without funding. This mechanism has funded over 70 investigators at UC Davis over the last 20 years. Although not a typical research contribution, he considered this one of the most important research accomplishments of his career.
Dr. Rutledge devoted his career to mentoring and developing science trainees and early career faculty, launching the careers of many into independence and remarkable subsequent success in both academia and industry. One prior graduate student is now Vice President for Cardiovascular Drug Discovery for Ionis Pharmaceuticals, another is a Presidential Fellow for Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, and yet another Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development at UC Merced. His students remark how caring and understanding he was in advising them, and influential in helping to shape their future careers and research interests. He demonstrated his genuineness, kindness, and authentic concern for others in all of his interactions with colleagues, students, and staff alike. For all of his teaching, research and service, Dr. Rutledge received the Dean’s Excellence in Mentoring Award at UC Davis, one of the first years this award was granted.
During our medical training, Jack and I (Amparo Villablanca, MD) met on the patient wards at UC Davis. Over our 36 year marriage we shared a wonderful and full life together, our love for each other, our careers, and academia. More importantly, we carried on the philosophy of our parents that family means everything and that kindness to others is one of the most important qualities of a virtuous life. All of us at UC Davis and beyond, especially the many patients, family, friends, and colleagues whose lives were touched by Dr. Rutledge, will greatly miss his gentle way, his kindness, his sweet disposition, his genuineness and sincerity, and the example he gave us of a personal and professional life well lived.
Submitted By:
Amparo Villablanca, MD
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Organizer and beneficiary
Amparo Villablanca
Organizer
Davis, CA
Amparo Villablanca
Beneficiary