Jeffrey Friedman, MD, PhD, (born July 20, 1954) is a molecular geneticist at New York City's Rockefeller University. His discovery of the hormone leptin and its role in regulating body weight has had a major role in the area of human obesity.

[edit] Biography

Friedman was born in Orlando, Florida in 1954, and grew up in North Woodmere, New York, graduating from Hewlett High School in the Class of 1971.^[1] He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and, in 1977, received his medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University in Albany, NY (through a combined six year program).^[2] His postgraduate life includes completing two residencies at Albany Medical Center Hospital, a postgraduate fellowship at Rockefeller as well as one at Cornell University Medical College. In 1986, he received a Ph.D. and became an assistant investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).^[3]

In 2005, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

[edit] Awards

His work in the area of obesity led to him receiving two prestigious awards in 2005: the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Passano Foundation Award.^[3] His work on leptin garnered him much television time, including an appearance on the PBS show Scientific American Frontiers in a long interview with host Alan Alda. In July 1997 he was awarded the Danone International Prize for Nutrition.^[4]

In 2009 Jeffrey M. Friedman was awarded the Shaw Prize (jointly with Douglas L. Coleman) for their work leading to the discovery of leptin, a hormone that regulates food intake and body weight.

[edit] References