News Release

Jeffrey S. Flier, M.D., receives Endocrine Society Award

Grant and Award Announcement

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

CHEVY CHASE, MD – Jeffrey S. Flier, M.D., Chief Academic Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and George C. Reisman Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, received the 2003 Edwin B. Astwood Lecture Award from the Endocrine Society during the Society's 85th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

Presented annually for outstanding endocrinology research, the Edwin B. Astwood Lecture Award represents one of the most distinguished honors in the field of endocrinology.

A member of the Endocrine Division at BIDMC, Flier's 30 years of research in the fields of diabetes and obesity has led to a greater understanding of insulin and leptin resistance, and to obesity's role in causing the metabolic syndrome.

His work has demonstrated that the hormone leptin not only regulates appetite, but also serves as a regulator of the neuroendocrine axis for reproductive, thyroid and adrenal control.

Flier's recent work has found strong evidence that glucocorticoid reactivation in adipose tissue can produce a murine equivalent of the metabolic syndrome, characterized by visceral obesity, insulin-resistant diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension.

Flier received his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in 1972. An elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Flier holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in leading scientific journals.

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Founded in 1916, the Endocrine Society is the world's oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Based in Chevy Chase, MD., the Society's membership consists of over 10,000 scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students from more than 80 countries.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a major patient care, teaching, and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, ranking third in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding among independent hospitals nationwide. The medical center is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox.


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