Jose Florez

Jose C. Florez is the chief of the endocrine division and the diabetes unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he holds the John T. Potts Jr., MD Endowed Chair in Medicine. He is also professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he directs the Diabetes Research Group, co-directs the Metabolism Program, and is active in the Program in Medical and Population Genetics.

Florez and his group have contributed to the performance and analysis of high-throughput genome-wide association and sequencing studies in type 2 diabetes and related traits, in international consortia such as MAGIC, GENIE, DIAGRAM, T2D-GENES, AMP-T2D, SIGMA, and RADIANT, where he plays management roles. He leads the genetic research efforts of the Diabetes Prevention Program and the GRADE clinical trial, where the effects of genetic variants on specific behavioral and pharmacological interventions can be assessed. He is the principal investigator of the Study to Understand the Genetics of the Acute Response to Metformin and Glipizide in Humans (SUGAR-MGH), and also conducts other pharmacogenetic studies at MGH. He is an author on more than 180 original publications and more than 50 reviews and book chapters.

In addition to his research and teaching duties, Florez is clinically active in the MGH Diabetes Center, the endocrine inpatient consult service, and the Down Syndrome Program. He serves on the editorial board for Human Genetics, and has been on editorial boards for Diabetes, Diabetologia, and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism; he is also the editor-in-chief for Current Diabetes Reports. Florez is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the recipient of the MGH Physician Scientist Development Award, a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award, the MGH Department of Medicine Stephen Krane Award, the MGH Research Scholars Award, and the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Florez earned his Ph.D. at Northwestern University and his M.D. at Northwestern University Medical School.

PUBLICATIONS

Rusu V, Hoch E, et al. Type 2 diabetes variants disrupt function of SLC16A11 through two distinct mechanisms. Cell. 2017; 170(1): 199-212.

Merino J, et al. Genetically driven hyperglycemia increases risk of coronary artery disease separately from type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2017; 40(11): 687-93.

Fuchsberger C, Flannick J, Teslovich TM, et al. The genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes. Nature. 2016; 536: 41-47.

Walford GA, Colomo N, Todd JN, et al. The Study to Understand the Genetics of the Acute Response to Metformin and Glipizide in Humans (SUGAR-MGH): Design of a pharmacogenetic resource for type 2 diabetes. PLoS ONE. 2015; 10: e0121553.

SIGMA Type 2 Diabetes Consortium, et al. Association of a low-frequency variant in HNF1A with type 2 diabetes in a Latino population. JAMA. 2014; 311(22): 2305-14.