Chief Endocrine Division and Diabetes Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital

Chief Medicine Massachusetts General Hospital

Head of the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School

Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Physician Diabetes, Massachusetts General Hospital

Institute Member Broad Institute

MGH Research Scholar 2013-2018 Mass General Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital

PhD 1995

MD Northwestern University Medical School 1997

blood glucose; diabetes; diabetes mellitus type 2; genetic predisposition to disease; genetic variation; genome-wide association study; hypoglycemic agents; metformin; pharmacogenetics; polymorphism single nucleotide; tcf transcription factors

Jose Florez’s laboratory is engaged in translating new genetic findings from type 2 diabetes research into the clinical arena. He and his group help generate and analyze emerging genetic data in order to:

(1) Provide a more refined understanding of type 2 diabetes, both by dissecting its clinical heterogeneity and illuminating novel mechanistic pathways;(2) Offer a “proof of concept” for the role of selected genetic variants significantly associated with diabetes or related glycemic traits, by showing that behavioral or pharmacological manipulation of a particular gene pathway alters specific phenotypes in humans; and (3) Contribute to usher in the era of genomic medicine, in which the practical utility of known genetic variation may be rigorously tested in the prediction of disease, prognosis of its clinical course, response to preventive or therapeutic options and individual susceptibility to side effects.

To achieve these goals, Jose Florez and his group have participated in the evaluation of specific variants in candidate genes that encode hypoglycemic drug targets with type 2 diabetes. They have also contributed to the performance and analysis of genome-wide association scans in type 2 diabetes and related traits, both in the Diabetes Genetics Initiative of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Lund University and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, as well as the Framingham Heart Study.

In addition to his research and teaching duties, he is clinically active in the MGH Diabetes Center, the Endocrine inpatient consult service, and the Down Syndrome Program. He serves on the Editorial Boards for Human Genetics and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and has been on Editorial Boards for Diabetes and Diabetologia; he is also the Editor-in-Chief for Current Diabetes Reports.

He is the recipient of the MGH Physician Scientist Development Award, a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award, the MGH Department of Medicine Stephen Krane Award, the MGH Research Scholars Award, and the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.