SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
SAB MEMBERS
Prof. Ralph A. DeFronzo | Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Peter Paul Nawroth
Former SAB MEMBERS
Prof. Itamar Raz (2017 - 2021)
Prof. Ralph A. DeFronzo, M.D - Type 2 Diabetes
Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center
and the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. DeFronzo is a graduate of Yale University (BS)
and Harvard Medical School (MD) and did his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
He completed fellowships in endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and Baltimore City Hospitals and in Nephrology
at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he joined the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine
(1975-88) as an Assistant/Associate Professor.
From 1988 to present Dr. DeFronzo has been Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas
Health Science Center at San Antonio. He also serves as the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute.
His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance
in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome.
Using the euglycemic insulin clamp technique in combination with radioisotope turnover methodology, limb catheterization,
indirect calorimetry, and muscle biopsy, Prof. DeFronzo has helped to define the biochemical and molecular disturbances
responsible for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus.
For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo received the prestigious Lilly Award (1987) by the American Diabetes Association (ADA),
the Banting Lectureship (1988) by the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Novartis Award (2003) for outstanding clinical investigation
world wide and many other national and international awards. He also is the recipient of the ADA’s Albert Renold Award (2002) for lifetime commitment to the training of young diabetes investigators.
Dr. DeFronzo received the Banting Award from the ADA (2008) and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008).
These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively.
In 2008 Dr. DeFronzo also received the Italian Diabetes Mentor Prize and the Philip Bondy Lecture at Yale.
Prof. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major
national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.
Pioneering Scientist Ralph DeFronzo Named 2017 Hamm Prize Laureate
Dr. DeFronzo spearheaded study of insulin resistance and diabetes drug metformin.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Imagine how different the lives of the one in three Oklahomans who have diabetes or prediabetes would be if this disease were cured, and the billions of dollars in annual health care costs saved.
Advancing progress toward that cure was the impetus for establishing the $250,000 Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes, the largest of its kind in the world, awarded by Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma.
The Hamm Prize recognizes and encourages lasting advances in the field of diabetes research. It is awarded to an individual who
has either demonstrated lifelong contributions to the field or realized a singular advance, especially in leading toward a cure.
The 2017 recipient, Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, is directly responsible for many of the advances achieved in diabetes over the last 50 years.
He was a leader in developing the concept of insulin resistance, the defining characteristic of Type 2 diabetes,
resulting in novel ideas about the development and progression of diabetes.
DeFronzo led the U.S. development of metformin, the first-line medication for treatment of diabetes, and ushered it through FDA
approval in 1995. More recently, he discovered a new approach to diabetes treatment that targets glucose reabsorption in the kidneys.
This work led to the development and approval of other widely used drugs, including dapagliflozin, empagliflozin and canagliflozin.
DeFronzo is the author of 750 publications dating back to 1967. He currently serves as professor of medicine and chief of
diabetes in the Long School of Medicine at University of Texas Health San Antonio, where he has been on faculty since 1988.
“My hope in awarding this unprecedented international research prize is that we would ignite worldwide scientific interest and innovation to find a cure for diabetes in this generation,” said Harold Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources Inc., who provided the endowment to establish the prize, following his generous lead gift in 2007 for the establishment of Harold Hamm Diabetes Center.
Hamm’s endowment of the prize provides for its awarding in the future in perpetuity.
This endowment represents a unique private/public partnership using philanthropic dollars as a catalyst for desperately needed medical advances, which is especially beneficial in the current environment marked by declining federal funding for medical research.
“I am grateful to Harold Hamm for establishing this important prize and for the leadership and tenacity he has demonstrated
by taking action to address the diabetes health crisis,” said OU President David L. Boren. “The CDC has said that at current rates,
one in three people in America will develop Type 2 diabetes. This prize is another example of the forward momentum of
Harold Hamm Diabetes Center’s efforts to slow growing statistics like these.
Dr. DeFronzo’s contributions to science directly benefit millions of Americans receiving treatment for diabetes.”
Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Peter Paul Nawroth
Peter Nawroth graduated in medicine from the University of Hamburg, trained in Tübingen, New York, Oklahoma and Heidelberg.
He is Professor of internal medicine and clinical chemistry at the medical faculty of the University Heidelberg, Germany.
He is the division head of the joint Heidelberg-IDC-Translation Diabetes Program, Helmholtz Center Munich.
From 2007 – 2011 he was the Deputy Chair of the board of Directors, University Hospital Heidelberg and from 2011 – 2012 was
acting executive Medical Director. From 2011 – 2014 he was the Council Member of the European Association for the study of diabetes
and from 2013 – 2017 the Chair of the EASD study group “Reactive Metabolites in Diabetes”.
From 2005 – 2017 he was the Editor in Chief of ECED. In 2005 he was President of the annual meeting of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Society of Germany and in 2007 President of the annual meeting of the German Diabetes Association.
As of 2014 he has been the Speaker of the CRC 1118, Reactive metabolites as a cause of diabetic complications by the EASD.
In 2018 he was awarded the “Camillo Golgi Prize”.
Peter Nawroth’s principal research interest is the pathophysiology of diabetes and its associated complications, with the particular interest in nephropathy, neuropathy and macrovascular pathology and recently the mechanisms leading to diabetic pulmopathy.
His studies have focused on hyperglycemia dependent and independent generation of reactive metabolites and the impaired detoxification of reactive metabolites leading to organ dysfunction. He had done so by combining experimental models,
such as yeast, C. elegans, drosophila and mice, with proof of principle studies in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Peter Nawroth has published more than 200 scientific papers, review articles, book chapters and books.
He is active in publishing books not only for the science community but also for the general public.
Prof. Itamar Raz, M.D - Type 2 Diabetes
Prof. Itamar Raz, M.D., serves as Medical Director of InsuLine Medical Ltd.
Prof. Raz serves as the Head of the Diabetes Unit at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem.
He serves as the Head of Diabetes Center at Hadassa Ein Karem Medical Center Jerusalem. He serves at Hadassah Medical Center as the Director of the Hadassah Center for the Prevention of Diabetes and Heads the Diabetes Clinical Research Center.
He served as the Chief Physician, Internal Medicine, Hadassah University Hospital since 1989; Chief Physician, Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital since 1992; Head of Diabetic Clinics, Hadassah University Hospit since 1992 and Head of Diabetes Unit, Hadassah University Hospital since 2001. He served as a Diabetes Medical Advisor of LabStyle Innovations Corp. From 1992 to 2005, he served as the President of the Israel Diabetes Association, Director, Israel Diabetes Research Group since 1999, Director, Eastern and Central European, Mediterranean Diabetes Research Consortium since 1999, the Head of the Israel National Council of Diabetes.
He served as the President of D Cure Diabetes Care to Cure in Israel since 2004.
He served as the President of DIRECT - Diabetes International Research and Educational Co-operative Team. He served as the Head,
Steering Committee, Eastern and Central European Guidelines for the Treatment of Diabetes from 1999 to 2000.
He served as the Head, Israeli Ministry of Health Committee for Diabetic Health Care and also Head, Israeli Ministry of Health Committee for the Treatment of Diabetes and Atherosclerosis from 1993 to 1998. He served as the Head, Chief, Scientist Committee of National Diabetes Research Plan since 1998. He was a Consulting Endocrinologist, Chief Physician’s Office, Israeli Defense Forces since 2000.
He served as the Head of National Board / Task Force of Diabetes of Ministry of Health since 2003. He served as the Head,
Israel National Diabetes Council since 2004.
He served as Chairman of Diabetes International Research and Education Cooperative Team from 2002 to 2006.
He serves as the Head of Scientific Advisory Board and Member of Scientific Advisory Board of DarioHealth Corp.
(formerly, LabStyle Innovations Corp.). He has been a Advisor at Orgenesis Inc. since March 16, 2015.
He serves as a Member of Advisory Board at Ziegler Meditech Equity Partners, L.P.
He serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Medingo Ltd., and InsuLine Medical Ltd.
He serves as a Member of Advisory Board of SmartZyme Innovation LTD.
He collaborated with 18 other diabetologists in Israel, conducting clinical research aimed at improving the treatment of diabetic patients.
He served as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at HealOr Ltd. He is a Member of Study Steering Committee at Andromeda Biotech Ltd. Prof. Raz serves as a Member of several advisory boards and Editorial Boards including the Israeli Medical Association Journal and RDS.
He served as a Director of LabStyle Innovations Corp. from June 2013 to November 2013.
He served as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at IntelliDx, Inc. and Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. He served as the Head, Israel
National Diabetes Council since 2004. He maintains a very active clinical program at Hadassah Hospital. He is a Professor of Medicine
and Head of the Diabetes Unit at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
Prof. Raz is well known as both an academic and clinician, having served as the Chief Physician at Hebrew University and Director of the Hadassah Center for the Prevention of Diabetes and its Complications at Hadassah University Hospital.
He has over 290 publications to his credit in professional peer-reviewed journals, lectures widely at national and international
diabetes meetings and serves on several international advisory boards.
His Editorial Positions: The International Diabetes Monitor Review Journal (Board of Review Editors), Einstein (International editorial board),
The Review of Diabetic Studies (associate editor), Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology (editorial board), Journal of Diabetes and its Complications (editorial board), Diabetes Management (editorial board), Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews (DMRR)(co-editor) and Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews.
He studied Pharmacology at Hebrew University in 1973 and received his B.S. at the Hadassah School of Pharmacy in Jerusalem.
He then obtained his M.D. in Medicine and Internal Medicine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1980 in his following studies,
which took place at the Hadassah University Hospital.