Faculty Profiles

Mitchell A. Lazar, M.D., Ph.D.
Sylvan H. Eisman Professor of Medicine & Genetics
Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
Director, Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism

Business Address

Education

Residency

Biography

Mitchell A. Lazar, M.D., Ph.D. is Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. Dr. Lazar is also a Sylvan H. Eisnman Professor of Medicine and Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Dr. Lazar received his S.B. in Chemistry from M.I.T., and his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Neurosciences) from Stanford Medical School. Before coming to Penn he was a resident in Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a clinical and research fellow in Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Research Associate of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lazar has been on the Penn faculty since 1989.

Dr. Lazar has received many professional awards and honors including the AFCR Foundation-Merck Early Career Development Award, the Van Meter Prize from the American Thyroid Association, the Richard E. Weitzman Award from The Endocrine Society,  the Outstanding Investigator Award in Basic Science from the American Federation of Medical Research, and the Edwin B. Astwood Lecture Award from The Endocrine Society.  He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and serves on the  Board of Scientific Councilors of the NIDDK.  Dr. Lazar also serves on the Editorial Boards of Science, Gene & Development, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Molecular Endocrinology, Endocrine Reviews, and Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism. 

Dr. Lazar's research is focused on mechanisms of hormone action. His laboratory is particularly interested in receptors for small, lipophilic hormones such as thyroid hormone and retinoic acid. These receptors are transcription factors, whose mechanisms of gene regulation are actively being explored. Current research focuses on understanding the mechanism of corepressor recruitment, the composition and function of the corepressor complex, and what goes wrong in malignancy, especially myeloid leukemia. We are also studying PPAR (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor), a fascinating new receptor that is regulated by thiazolidinediones, a new class of anti-diabetes drugs. PPAR is a determinant of adipocyte (fat cell) differentiation, and thus represents a potential clue to the link between obesity and diabetes. We have been studying regulation of PPAR activity, and have also discovered a novel target gene for PPAR which encodes a previously unknown polypeptide hormone made by fat cells. Resistin is made only in fat cells, is secreted into the bloodstream, and reduces insulin sensitivity. Thus, it is a potential link between PPAR, obesity, and diabetes. We are now studying the molecular physiology of resistin in a number of model systems.