Page 16 - MemoriaDEM-Eng

ORGANIZATION

Member: F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, Universidad de Columbia, New York (USA)

Professor of Medicine at Columbia University (New York). Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition
Department of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and Director of the New York Obesity Research Center.
He chaired the Committee of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, defining and designing new go-

vernmental guidelines for the prevention and treatment of obesity. He also served as the President of the
American Diabetes Association (ADA), the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and the North American
Association for the Study of Obesity, and as a member of various diabetes and obesity advisory committees.
He has written over 300 international articles and a number of book chapters. He served as the Editor of

the International Journal of Obesity from 1994-2005 and as the Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Research from
1995-2000.

Member: Decio Eizirik, Universidad Libre, Bruselas (Bélgica)
Director, Experimental Medicine Laboratory, Université Libre, Brussels (ULB), Belgium. He has published

over 220 articles in international journals and received many awards including, most importantly, the Juve-
nile Diabetes Research Foundation Award (JDRF), the Diabetes Care Research Award and the EASD/Eli Lilly
Award. He is the coordinator of the Beta Cell Gene Expression Bank and of several competitive European

projects in the field of diabetes. He served as the Honorary Scientific Secretary of the European Association
for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) (2004-2007) and the Assistant Editor of the Diabetologia journal (1998-
2004). He is currently the member of the Scientific Committee for the National Programme of Diabetes

Research in France. His research interests focus on molecular mechanisms regulating beta cell apoptosis
and the search for new approaches to prevent progressive cell mass loss in diabetes.

Member: Antonio Vidal-Puig, Universidad de Cambridge, Cambridge (UK)

M.D, PhD in Endocrinology. He completed his post-doctoral internship at Harvard and then lived out his re-
search career there until 1999 when he moved to the University of Cambridge. He is now the Associate Pro-

fessor of Metabolic Medicine and Honorary Consultant in Metabolic Medicine at the University of Cambridge.
He is also the Assistant Director of the MRC-CORD Research Centre for Obesity and Related Diseases of the
University of Cambridge and Director of Wellcome Trust’s Mouse Programme. His areas of scientific interest

include adipocyte biology, mitochondrial biology, lipotoxicity and genetically modified animal models.

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Member: Ele Ferrannini, Universidad de Pisa, Pisa (Italia)

Professor of Internal Medicine, Universit degli Studi di Pisa, Chief of the Metabolic Medicine Unit of the
CNR (National Research Council), Instituto de Fisiología Clínica de Pisa, and Professor of Clinical Medicine,
Diabetes Department, University de Texas, USA. He has published over 400 original articles in the field

of diabetes, metabolic medicine and hypertension. He is a member of various scientific associations. His
participation in the Executive Council of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) as the
President (2004-2008) and his role as the Editor-in-Chief of Diabetologia (1994-1998), the official journal

of the EASD, must be given special mention. He now serves as the President of the European Group for the
Study of Insulin Resistance.

Lines of research: insulin resistance and atherosclerosis, impact of oxidative stress and blood pressure on
endothelial function, autoimmunity in adult-onset diabetes, physiopathology of insulin secretion, impact of
hyperinsulinemia on the nervous system, pathogenesis of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinism in obesity,

effect on weight loss; coronary atherosclerosis in diabetes, atherosclerosis in diabetes.

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