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ESA Plenary Speakers 
| Ralph De Fronzo - University of Pennsylvania Health System, USA
Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is 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. Dr. DeFronzo is a graduate of Yale University (BS) and Harvard Medical School (MD) and did his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed fellowships in endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and Baltimore City Hospitals and in Nephrology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he joined the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine (1975-88) as an Assistant/Associate Professor.
His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. 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.
For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo received the prestigious Lilly Award (1987) by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the Banting Lectureship (1988) by the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Novartis Award (2003) for outstanding clinical investigation world wide and many other national and international awards. He also is the recipient of the ADA’s Albert Renold Award (2002) for lifetime commitment to the training of young diabetes investigators. Dr. DeFronzo received the Banting Award from the ADA (2008) and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively. In 2008 Dr. DeFronzo also received the Italian Diabetes Mentor Prize and the Philip Bondy Lecture at Yale. With more than 500 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus. |  | Stafford Lightman - Univeristy of Bristol, UK
Stafford Lightman is Professor of Medicine at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and is Director of the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology. He started his scientific career working on catecholamines and opioid peptides with Leslie Iversen at the University of Cambridge and provided some of the first data linking opioid peptides with the regulation of neurohypophysial function. At this time he also performed some of the first studies demonstrating the importance of brain stem catecholamine pathways in the regulation of hypothalamic activity. On moving to what is now Imperial College in London, he started to develop his studies on the role of the brain in the regulation of the stress response. He demonstrated the shift from CRH to arginine vasopressin in the control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during chronic stress, demonstrated and characterised the development of stress hyporesponsiveness during lactation in both rats and man and developed models of immunological activation of the stress response. More recently he has developed the concept of the importance of digital signalling inherent in the pulsatile release of glucocorticoid hormones and has been able to demonstrate the specificity of mineralocorticoid receptor and glucocorticoid receptor responsiveness to rapid changes in levels of circulating glucorticoids.
Stafford Lightman was the founder Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, a founder Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the founder Chairman of the Pituitary Foundation and a Council Member of the Physiological Society. He sits on several Research Councils, Wellcome Trust and European Research Committees and has Chaired the European Union Committee Review of Tertiary Education in East Africa. Professor Lightman also has a major interest in inter-relationships between art and neuroscience and is a frequent speaker on both radio and television in the United Kingdom.
|  | Karel Pacak - National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States
Dr. Pacak together with his colleagues/collaborators introduced a novel biochemical test, the measurement of plasma free metanephrines, in the biochemical diagnosis of pheochromocytoma; introduced a novel clonidine-suppression test; refuted a glucagon test; introduced new reference ranges for plasma free metanephrines for children; introduced a new nuclear imaging method, [18F]-6F-dopamine positron emission tomography (PET) scanning in the diagnostic localization of pheochromocytoma; introduced a “flip-flop” theory in functional imaging of pheochromocytoma using FDG PET scanning; introduced guidelines for functional imaging of these tumors, described mechanisms linking different biochemical and clinical phenotypes and exocytosis in pheochromocytomas in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN 2A) and von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome; distinct histopathologic phenotypes between MEN 2A and VHL pheochromocytomas; described how NE transporter system can be modulated by HDAC inhibitors (patented) and its possible application as a “sensitizer” before 131I-MIBG treatment; introduced the first successful radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of metastatic pheochromocytoma; described clinical characteristics of SDHB-related pheochromocytomas; introduced guidelines for screening of pediatric patients with SDHB gene mutations, described the role of metastasis suppressor genes in the pathogenesis of malignant pheochromocytoma; proposed the role of IL-13PE in the treatment of these tumors; described a new way using SDHB immunostaining in the diagnosis of SDHx-related pheochromocytomas, found that mediastinal paragangliomas and GIST tumors are related to SDHB gene mutations. Introduced and established International Symposia on Pheochromocytoma, organized patient-oriented conferences: SDHB-Related Pheochromocytoma in 2006, Pheochromocytoma 2007, and 2009 and established Pheochromocytoma research and Support Organization (PRESSOR). He gave numerous Endocrine Grand Rounds to educate endocrinologists in the area of chromaffin cell tumors.
|  | Jayne Franklin- School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine College of Medical and Dental Sciences, United Kingdom
Qualified MBChB (with Honours) at the University of Birmingham, UK in 1979. Subsequently awarded MD and PhD for research into thyroid hormone action and TSH gene regulation whilst MRC Training Fellow and Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow. Appointed Professor of Medicine, University of Birmingham and Consultant Endocrinologist, University Hospitals Birmingham, UK in 1995. Longstanding laboratory and clinical research interests focussing on the pathogenesis and long term consequences of thyroid cancer and autoimmune thyroid disease. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and has been awarded the Royal College of Physicians Goulstonian Lectureship, as well as Plenary Lectureships of the Society for Endocrinology, Clinical Endocrinology Trust, the International Congress of Endocrinology and both Keynote and Paul Starr Lectureships of the American Thyroid Association. Head of the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the College of Medical and Dental Sciences of the University of Birmingham since 2008 and an active teacher and mentor, as well as researcher, with over 250 peer reviewed papers in thyroid research.
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SRB Plenary Speakers
 | David Handelsman - ANZAC Research Insitute, The University of Sydney, Australia
Professor David Handelsman is the inaugural Professor/Director, ANZAC Research Institute (1998), heading its Andrology Laboratory and Head, Andrology Department, Concord Hospital. His expertise in male reproductive health, medicine and biology has involved research in basic, clinical, translational and public health domains. His recent research interests focus on physiology and pharmacology of androgens, including genetic mouse models of androgen action, hormonal regulation of the testis and prostate, sports doping detection, clinical applications and pharmacogenetics of androgens in hormonal male contraception, male ageing, chronic medical disorders and prostate disease. His background includes training in medicine (Univ of Melbourne), specialist training in Endocrinology (FRACP) and research (NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellow, Wellcome Senior Research Fellow) and has worked in the USA, Australia and Germany. He has served on numerous research and health policy advisory bodies including WHO Human Reproduction Programme (1988-1994), Australian Drug Evaluation Committee (1994-1998), President of the Endocrine Society of Australia (1992-4), Secretary of the International Society of Andrology (1997-2001), expert advisory panel of the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee (1999-present) and Anti-Doping Research Panel (2002-present), Board of Andrology Australia (Australian Centre of Excellence in Male Reproductive Health) (1999-present) and inaugural Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health at University of Adelaide (2007-present). He has appeared as a Crown expert witness before Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia, the highest court hearing testimony from non legal experts. He was also invited to present evidence to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing’s review of impotence medications. |  | Renee Reijo Pera - Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
Dr. Reijo Pera is the Director of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Education and a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University. Her research is aimed at understanding the genetics of human embryo growth and development and in characterizing the basic properties of human embryonic stem cells, especially their ability to differentiate to all cell types including germ cells. She has received numerous awards throughout her career and most recently was named Outstanding Faculty Mentor at UCSF in 2005 and one of the twenty Top Women On Leadership featured in Newsweek 2006. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin (Superior), her doctoral degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute for BioMedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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ESA Symposia Speakers
Suyinn Chong - Queensland Insitute of Medical Research, Australia
| Peter Clifton - CSIRO Human Nutrition, Australia
| Helen Maclean - University of Melbourne, Austin Hospital, Australia
| | George Muscat - University of Queensland, Australia | | Brian Oldfield - Monash University, Australia | Michael Waters - University of Queensland, Australia
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SRB Symposia Speakers | John Aitken - University of Newcastle, Australia | Frank Bloomfield - Liggins Insitute, University of Auckland, New Zealand
| | Bart Gadella - Utrecht University, The Netherlands | | Terry Hassold - Washington State University, USA | | Patricia Hunt - Washington State University, USA | Keith Jones - University of Newcastle, Australia
| Marilyn Renfree - University of Melbourne, Australia
| Janet Rowan - National Women's Health, Auckland City Hospital, New Zealand
| Mike Thompson - University of Sydney, Australia
| | Brendan Waddell - The University of Western Australia, Australia |
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Invited Speakers 
ESA SRB 2010 Sponsorship Prospectus
Amgen Tuesday Breakfast Session