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More on Dr. Klassen . . .

Lynell Klassen, M.D., Stokes-Shackleford Professor of Medicine and associate chief of staff for research for the Omaha Veterans Administration Medical Center, has been the chairman of UNMC's Department of Internal Medicine, since 2006. 

Since coming to Nebraska in 1982, Dr. Klassen has served as chief of the section of Rheumatology and Immunology; vice chairman in UNMC's Department of Internal Medicine; acting chairman of the department of medicine; and chief of Rheumatology at the Omaha VAMC, in addition to his current roles at UNMC and VAMC.

Dr. Klassen is nationally recognized for his research in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease. He has been continuously funded since 1977 with peer-reviewed grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and/or the VA, and he currently holds a 10-year NIH MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) award for innovative studies in the role of immune responses in alcohol-associated tissue damage. He is only the second UNMC researcher to ever receive the prestigious MERIT Award.

Dr. Klassen also is an accomplished educator. He has written several case-based curricula that have been used by the American College of Rheumatology nationwide in educational programs for primary care physicians. In addition, he serves as course director of the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Board Review Course, which is held annually in Chicago. Dr. Klassen has held multiple national positions with the American College of Rheumatology and American College of Physicians, as well as served as chairman of several NIH and VA research grant review committees.

The Kansas native earned his medical degree at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1973 and completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and a Rheumatology and immunology fellowship with the Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch of the NIH. He joined UNMC and the VA Medical Center in July 1982 after teaching at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and the clinical center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

While at Iowa, Dr. Klassen was involved in initiating a bone marrow transplant program with James Armitage, M.D., and served as co-director of the transplant unit. He also was director of the Histocompatibility Tissue Typing Laboratory and developed the first ambulatory care program for the residents at the Iowa City VA Medical Center. In 1982, Dr. Klassen became chief of Rheumatology and immunology in the UNMC Department of Medicine. He again worked with Dr. Armitage to establish a bone marrow transplant program at UNMC, as well as develop the section of Rheumatology and immunology into an active clinical and academic unit. Dr. Klassen also established the Experimental Immunology Laboratory at the Omaha VAMC and formed the first HIV-associated clinic at UNMC.

He and his wife Jolene have four children. Three graduated from UNMC's College of Medicine, while their fourth is a third-year pharmacy student in UNMC's College of Pharmacy.

Date Published: September 3, 2007