Evans

Biography

Ron Evans is Director of the Gene Expression Laboratory and Metabolic Engineering Program and Co-Director of the Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine at the Salk Institute. He is known for pioneering studies on hormones' normal activities and their roles in disease. A major discovery was nuclear hormone receptors, which respond to steroid hormones, vitamin A, vitamin D, thyroid hormones and bile acids. These receptors help control sugar, salt, calcium, cholesterol and fat metabolism. They are primary targets in breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers, and leukemia treatment and have therapeutic roles in chronic inflammation, osteoporosis and asthma. His muscle metabolism studies led to the discovery of exercise mimetics, which promote the benefits of fitness without training. Exercise mimetics will help battle the obesity epidemic, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer. Evans is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the recipient of multiple awards, including the Albert Lasker Award (2004) and the Wolf Prize (2012), and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. 

Research Interest

 pharma