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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 14, 2006 |
For more information, please contact the ATA at thyroid@thyroid.org. |
Douglas Forrest Awarded American Thyroid Association’s 2006 Van Meter Award
(PHOENIX)— Douglas Forrest, PhD, a native of Scotland, was honored
with the American Thyroid Association’s (ATA) prestigious 2006 Van
Meter Award on Oct. 13, 2006, during the ATA 77th Annual Meeting in Phoenix.
Established in 1930, the Van Meter Award honors an investigator who has
made outstanding contributions to research on the thyroid gland. The award
is the ATA’s oldest and most anticipated because it is kept secret
until the recipient presents a major lecture at the ATA Annual Meeting.
Dr. Douglas’s lecture was titled “Genes That Mediate Thyroid
Hormone Actions: More Than Meets the Eye, or Ear.” The award is
supported, in part, by Quest Diagnostics, Inc.
Dr. Forrest’s lecture addressed the critical importance of thyroid hormone in development and how a network of physiological functions is controlled by different thyroid hormone receptors. He spoke about recent findings in sensory systems, an area that has previously received little attention, and indicated how receptors and deiodinase enzymes are essential for the development of the cochlea and the onset of hearing. This research has also revealed an essential and previously unsuspected role for thyroid hormone in the cone photoreceptors that mediate color vision.
Currently, Dr. Forrest is a Senior Investigator in the Clinical Endocrinology Branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He received his PhD in 1987 from Glasgow University, studying oncogenes involved in feline leukemia. He later performed postdoctoral research in developmental neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in New Jersey. Following his interest in thyroid hormone, Dr. Forrest then spent nine years at the Department of Human Genetics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, first as assistant professor and then as a tenured associate professor, before moving to the NIH in 2004.
Throughout his career, Dr. Forrest has been recognized through other honors, including the Merck Prize of the European Thyroid Association, the Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the Shizume Lecture of the Japanese Thyroid Association.
The American Thyroid Association, www.thyroid.org, is a nonprofit professional medical society composed of physicians and scientists dedicated to enhancing the understanding of thyroid physiology and pathophysiology, improving diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases, and promoting the education of physicians, patients, and the public about thyroid disorders.
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