(Philadelphia, PA) - Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is the 2006 recipient of The Endocrine Society’s Edwin B. Astwood Award Lecture. Lazar will present his talk, entitled, “Nuclear Receptors and Endocrinology,” at the society’s 88th annual meeting, this week in Boston, MA.

Lazar is also the Sylvan H. Eisman Professor of Medicine and Genetics and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at Penn, where he has been since 1989.

For the past 20 years his scientific research has focused on gene and metabolic regulation and mechanisms of hormone action. He also discovered the hormone resistin, which plays an integral role in insulin resistance.

In 1995, The Endocrine Society also recognized Lazar’s achievements, presenting him with the Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award, which acknowledged him as a promising new investigator in the field of endocrinology.

Lazar is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, where he completed his undergraduate and doctorate degrees, respectively. He completed his medical residency and Endocrinology Fellowship through Harvard University at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

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