Cardiometabolic Medicines From the Gut: The Glucagon-Like Peptide Story

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2020 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Virtual Symposium

In honor of Daniel Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst for identifying the family of Glucagon-Like Peptides through studies extending from cells to humans, culminating in the development of these peptides and related pathway-modifiers as important new classes of therapeutic agents for treating diabetes, obesity and short bowel syndrome.

Daniel J. Drucker

Daniel J. Drucker | 2020 Recipient

Dr. Daniel J. Drucker is an Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. Dr. Drucker received training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology from the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and the Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto and completed a research fellowship in Molecular Endocrinology (1984-87) at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Drucker established his own laboratory research program in 1987 in Toronto.

A pioneer in diabetes treatment, Dr. Drucker's work has provided important insights leading to the development of new drugs for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Currently, his laboratory at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum focuses on understanding the molecular biology and physiology of glucagon-like peptides.

He is the recipient of the 2009 Clinical Investigator Award from The Endocrine Society,  2011 Oon International Award for Preventive Medicine, Cambridge University School of Medicine, 2014 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, American Diabetes Association, 2014 Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research, Manpei Suzuki Foundation, 2015 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 2015 Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada.

Joel Habener

Joel Habener | 2020 Recipient

Joel Francis Habener, M.D. received his B.S. degree Cum Laude in 1960 from the University of Redlands, Redlands, California and in 1965 his M.D degree from the University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California.  Dr. Habener is Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, Associate Physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a former Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  He is the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

His research interests are in the fields of obesity, diabetes, and metabolism with a focus on the interactions of growth factors and morphogens on the expression of transcription factors during development and in the regulation of hormone production by endocrine organs of the body.  He has authored over 450 research articles, books and reviews on these subjects.  He is a discoverer of the insulinotropic hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, cyclic AMP response element binding protein, the pancreas duodenal homeodomain protein, and the existence of multipotent stem cells in the pancreas. Dr. Habener holds several patents on these discoveries. Dr. Habener’s discoveries contributed to the development of glucagon-like peptide-1, currently successfully in use as a treatment for diabetes.

Dr. Habener is a member of several editorial boards of scientific journals and has served on many advisory committees of pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health.  He is the recipient of several awards, including the Edwin B. Astwood Award, Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award, and Outstanding Mentorship Lauriet Award by the Endocrine Society, and the Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine (shared) from the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Harrington Discovery Institute.

Jens Juul Holst

Jens Juul Holst | 2020 Recipient

Jens Juul Holst is a professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and at the same time affiliated with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research. Jens Juul Holst's research concentrates on appetite regulation and hormones that regulate metabolism (digestion).

Jens is head of a research group that focuses on obesity and type 2 diabetes, especially with the aim of mapping hormonal disorders and the possibilities of treatment based on hormones. He has also taken part in developing a wide range of drugs used in treatment of type 2 diabetes.

He is the recipient of several prizes including the 2017  UCPH Innovation Prize, 2017 The Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, 2015 The Nordic Fernström Prize, 2013 The Anders Jahre Senior Medical Prize, 2013 The Marie and August Krogh Award, 2012 The European Medal of the Society for Endocrinology, 2010 The Bagger-Sørensen Award (DKK 500,000), and 2009 KFJ prize of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

Jens is co-founder of start-ups, including Antag Therapeutics and Bainen Biotech.

Symposium Program

Each year the recipient(s) of the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize are recognized at a scientific symposium hosted by Harvard Medical School.

Featured Speakers include:

Fiona Gribble, DPhil, BM, BCh

Professor of Endocrine Physiology WT-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science University of Cambridge

Gut endocrine cells - chemosensors of the postprandial state

Jens Juul Holst, MD, DMSc

Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Group Leader Translational Metabolic Physiology, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research University of Copenhagen

GLP-1 in humans

Joel Habener, MD

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology, Massachusetts General Hospital

Glucagon-like Peptide-1: Discovery, Structure, Activity

Daniel Drucker, MD

Senior Scientist, the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada, Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto

The protean peptide GLP-1; From metabolism to inflammation and cardioprotection

Matthias H. Tschöp, MD

Alexander von Humboldt Professor, Technical University of Munich Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Helmholtz Center Munich

Glucagon-like polyagonists - discovery, mechanism and clinical translation

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Past Symposia

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It is truly an honor to be included amongst the extremely distinguished list of winners of the Alpert Award, which since 1987 has recognized some of the most exciting scientific discoveries that impact medicine. To me personally, it is exciting to see the relatively new field of neurotechnology recognized. The brain implements our thoughts and feelings and makes us who we are. And brain disorders affect over a billion people around the world. These mysteries and challenges require new technologies to make the brain understandable and repairable. It is a great honor that our technology of optogenetics is being thus recognized.
- Edward Boyden

Edward Boyden | 2019 Recipient

Edward Boyden is the Y. Eva Tan Professor of Neurotechnology, Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Co-Director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering. In 2018, he was selected to be an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  While a PhD student at Stanford, he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. In parallel, he co-invented optogenetic control of neurons. In particular, he and co-winner Karl Deisseroth brainstormed about how microbial opsins could be used to mediate optical control of neural activity while both were students. Together, the two of them collaborated to demonstrate the firstoptical control of neural activity using microbial opsins, with Karl, then a postdoc, and Ed, then a graduate student, performing the gene transfection and the optical stimulation respectively.

His lab at MIT pioneered optogenetic neural silencing using microbial opsins, and further developed the optogenetic toolset towards the neuroscience-driven goals of powerful, noninvasive, high-speed, multiplexed, and single-cell targeted optical control of neural activity. Dr. Boyden has received the Grete Lundbeck Brain Prize (2013), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences (2015), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016), and the Canada Gairdner International Award (2018).  He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors.

 View Past Recipients