Endocrine Abstracts

The European Journal of Endocrinology Prize is awarded to a candidate who has contributed significantly to the advancement of the knowledge in the field of endocrinology through publication. Further information on the prize can be found at http://www.ese-hormones.org/prizes/eje.aspx. This year’s recipient is Dr Robert Semple. The prize will be presented as part of the ECE 2015 opening ceremony where Dr Semple will deliver his lecture. Dr Semple will also write a review article based on this lecture to be published in the European Journal of Endocrinology.

Robert Semple, University of Cambridge, UK

Robert Semple is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist at the University of Cambridge, UK. He read Biochemistry and then Medicine at the University of Cambridge before internal medical posts in London. He returned to Cambridge for specialist training in Diabetes and Endocrinology, interrupted by doctoral studies with Prof Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, focussing on transcriptional regulation of adipose tissue metabolism.

For the past 12 years he has focussed on rare disorders of insulin action and growth. His research aims to identify novel genetic defects underlying insulin resistance and related conditions, both to accelerate diagnosis and to enhance treatment of affected patients, and to draw inferences, through physiological study of affected patients, about the pathobiology of common forms of metabolic disease. This work has played a key part in the establishment of a National Severe Insulin Resistance Service in Cambridge.

Dr Semple is also a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Director of the Cambridge MB PhD programme.