Antonio C. Bianco

Biography

Antonio Bianco, MD, is the Charles Arthur Weaver Professor of Cancer Research in the Department of Internal Medicine. He is the president of Rush University Medical Group and vice dean for clinical affairs in Rush Medical College. Bianco came to Rush from the University of Miami Health System, where he served as professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. He has more than 30 years of experience in the thyroid field. He has been recognized with a number of national and international awards and membership in prestigious medical societies. A well-rounded investigator in the field of thyroid disease, Bianco led two American Thyroid Association task forces: one charged with drafting guidelines for thyroid research (as chair) and another responsible for developing guidelines for the treatment of hypothyroidism (co-chair). Bianco’s research interests include the cellular and molecular physiology of the enzymes that control thyroid hormone action (the iodothyronine deiodinases). He has contributed approximately 250 papers, book chapters and review articles in this field, and has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally. Recently, he has focused on aspects of the deiodination pathway that interfere with treatment of hypothyroid patients, a disease that affects more than 10 million Americans. He directs an NIH-funded research laboratory where he has mentored almost 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Bianco attended the Dante Alighieri High School and College. He received his medical degree and was a house officer at Santa Casa Hospital Medical School in 1983, and trained in endocrinology at the Federal University of São Paulo. Bianco’s academic work has helped establish the importance of local control of thyroid hormone activation and inactivation in development, metabolic control and energy homeostasis. His initial interest in this area formed while he was a research fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School under J. Enrique Silva, MD. His subsequent studies laid the groundwork for the modern concept of how deiodinases regulate thyroid hormone signaling on a tissue-specific basis without antecedent changes in plasma thyroid hormone concentrations. In 1998, Bianco immigrated to the United States, returning to Brigham and Women’s Hospital as an associate professor and eventually chief of the thyroid section. In his 10-year tenure at Brigham and Women’s, Bianco expanded his studies to cell biology of the deiodinases, discovering how one type of deiodinase can be inactivated through WSB-1-mediated ubiquitination, a process that is critical for our understanding of hypothyroidism treatment. In 2008, Bianco was recruited to Miami to become chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, where he stayed for six years.

Research Interest

His research areas includes aspects of thyroid hormone metabolism and action that involve the deiodinases and treatment of patients with hypothyroidism.