Senior Research Physician
Program Director
NIH/NIDCR
Building 30, Room 218
30 Convent Dr. MSC 4320
Bethesda, MD 20892
United States
As a member of the Skeletal Disorders and Mineral Homeostasis Section, Dr. Gafni’s primary interests involve the study of conditions affecting calcium and phosphate metabolism, the teeth, and the skeleton, with a focus on developing improved therapies to benefit patients. To that end, she serves as a principal or associate investigator on research protocols treating individuals with conditions including hypoparathyroidism, autosomal dominant hypocalcemia, osteoporosis, McCune-Albright Syndrome/fibrous dysplasia, hypophosphatemic rickets, tumor-induced osteomalacia, hyperphosphatemic familial tumoral calcinosis, generalized arterial calcification of infancy, dermatomyositis-related calcinosis, and other bone and mineral disorders.
Rachel I. Gafni received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.D. from Temple University. She completed a pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia followed by a pediatric endocrinology fellowship at NIH serving as a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service from 1996 to 2002. Following a five-year appointment at the University of Maryland, Dr. Gafni returned to NIH in 2007 in the Skeletal Disorders and Mineral Homeostasis Section, becoming a senior research physician in 2018. She is also faculty in the Pediatric Bone Health Program at Children’s National Hospital, an adjunct associate professor at the George Washington School of Medicine, and the current program director for the pediatric endocrinology fellowship in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).