Ralph Defronzo, M.d.
Collaborator
Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division
Xeris Pharmaceuticals
United States of America
Biography
Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. He also functions as the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute. His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the insulin resistance syndrome, and the etiology and treatment of diabetic nephropathy. Using the euglycemic insulin clamp technique in combination with radioisotope turnover methodology, limb catheterization, indirect calorimetry, and muscle biopsy, he has helped to define the biochemical and molecular disturbances responsible for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus. He is a member of the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) Expert Committee on the Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus.
Research Interest
He was the US Representative for the International Study Group for Type 2 Diabetes for 14 years and is a member of several medical societies, including the American Diabetes Association, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Dr. DeFronzo is the recipient of the Lilly Award (outstanding young investigator) from the American Diabetes Association (1987), the Banting Lectureship from the Canadian Diabetes Association (1988), the Albert Renold Award (lifetime commitment to the training of over 200 young diabetes investigators) from the ADA (2002), and the Novartis Award (outstanding clinical investigator in North America) in 2003. Dr. DeFronzo is also a co-Principal Investigator on a Phase II SBIR grant Xeris received in 2011 to accelerate the development of the G-Pen glucagon rescue pen for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia. Xeris successfully completed the Phase 2 clinical trial at the Texas Diabetes Institute under the direction of Dr. DeFronzo in early 2014.
