Inaugural Cruse Lecture set for Dec. 7

Published on Monday, December 4, 2023

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

Dr. Julius Cruse will be remembered as he’d want: with the sharing of knowledge.

The inaugural Julius M. Cruse, MD, PhD Lectureship in Immunopathology and Transplant Immunology will be held at noon Dec. 7 in the R-153 amphitheater. Dr. Joseph R. Leventhal, professor of surgery and director of the kidney transplant program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, will speak on “Achieving Transplantation Tolerance through Cell Therapies: Where Do We Stand.” Lunch will be available to the first 50 in attendance.

The lectureship is a memorial to Cruse and his nearly 50 years of service to the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Cruse was the first professor of immunology and the first Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, as well as a Guyton Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Medicine and Microbiology.   

Cruse established the Division of Immunopathology and Transplantation Immunology, which brought cutting-edge diagnostics to the Department of Pathology and created a transplant laboratory in support of UMMC’s transplant program. He also launched and served as director of the pathology graduate studies program. In addition to authoring nearly 50 books and over 300 scientific papers, he was the founding editor-in-chief of three international medical journals.

“Dr. Cruse was a true Renaissance educator,” said Dr. Robert Lewis, professor emeritus of pathology at UMMC. “His love for history, art and literature was always part of our everyday conversation.”

Lewis created the lectureship, the Julius M. Cruse, MD, PhD Pathology Endowment, as well as the Cruse Graduate Scholarship in Cruse’s memory.

“This is all done in honor of his lifelong dedication to medical education and the opportunities he provided for me and so many other students like me,” Lewis said. “Everything I have accomplished; I owe to his influence. He was both a mentor and friend, and my admiration and respect for him has never wavered.”

Cruse died Aug. 20, 2018, after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Graduating with degrees in chemistry and German from the University of Mississippi in 1958, Cruse was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Graz (Austria), where he earned the D.Med.Sc. summa cum laude in 1960. He received his MD-PhD in pathology from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pathology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Cruse became one of the most eminent immunologists of his time. His research centered on transplantation and tumor immunology, autoimmunity, MHC genetics in the pathogenesis of AIDS, and neuroendocrine-immune interactions. He received many research grants during his career and was an investigator of the Wilson Research Foundation at Methodist Rehabilitation Center.

He founded the Dean Billy S. Guyton Visiting Professorship in the History of Medicine and presented the fifth Guyton Lecture at the Medical Center. In his role as historian, Cruse produced and recorded almost 50 oral history interviews of major luminaries who played pivotal roles in the establishment of the Medical Center. This project, “History Speaking,” serves as a valuable resource for future historians of UMMC.

“Dr. Cruse’s contributions to medicine were groundbreaking and far-reaching,” said Dr. Robert Brodell, professor and chair of the Department of Pathology. “The lectureship in his name will make sure that his work in immunology and pathology will continue to be recognized and honored.”