TIME Magazine recently recognized three Endocrine Society members in its 100 Most Influential People of 2024: Daniel J. Drucker, MD, professor of medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, editor-in-chief, Endocrine Reviews; Joel F. Habener, MA, MD, chief of Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology, Massachusetts General Hospital; and Svetlana Mojsov, PhD, research associate professor at Rockefeller University in New York.
Drucker, Habener, and Mojsov were involved in the development of GLP-1 anti-obesity medications, which have led to significant breakthroughs in treating diabetes and obesity, making headlines around the world.
The TIME Magazine blurb points to even more benefits of these drugs on the horizon: “Now GLP-1-based medications are approved in the U.S. to treat diabetes and obesity, and to reduce the risk of heart disease. And there’s more to come — researchers are studying other potential benefits of GLP-1 drugs, including lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, kidney, and liver diseases.”
Endocrine News interviewed Drucker and Habener in 2020, when they won the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for their discoveries about the function of key intestinal hormones, their effects on metabolism, and the subsequent design of treatments for type 2 diabetes, obesity, and short bowel syndrome — the first time in many years in this prestigious award has gone to investigators in the field of endocrinology.
“It is amazing, today, to see that a GLP-1R agonist has also been approved for and is the number one selling prescription medicine for obesity,” Drucker told Endocrine News at the time. “Moreover, GLP-1R agonists reduce the rates of heart attacks, stroke, and death in people with diabetes at risk for cardiovascular disease, which we could not have predicted back in the early 1980s.”
Mojsov Photo: Chris Taggart/The Rockefeller University
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