Bio Details

Dr. Grinspoon is a Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Chief of the MGH Metabolism Unit, Director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard and Endowed Chair in Neuroendocrinology and Metabolism. He has had a long-standing interest in the metabolic complications and regulation of ectopic adipose tissue in obesity and lipodystrophic conditions, with a specific focus on HIV lipodystrophy. He has served on the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Nutrition in HIV Disease and Chaired the American Heart Association State of the Science Conference on Cardiovascular Disease in HIV-infected patients, as well as a recent NIH-sponsored conference on the mechanisms and complications of obesity in HIV-infected patients. In his research, he has investigated the effects of reduced pulsatile growth hormone secretion on metabolic dysregulation in obesity and was the first to propose the use of a GHRH analogue to increase endogenous GH secretion in lipodystrophy and generalized obesity. This strategy has shown that augmentation of endogenous GH pulsatility selectively reduces visceral fat, improves carotid IMT, and reduces inflammatory indices. This work led to the FDA approval of Tesamorelin for excess visceral fat accumulation in HIV-infected patients. For his work Dr. Grinspoon was awarded the 2016 Aurbach Laureate award in translational research from the Endocrine Society. More recently he has shown beneficial effects of Tesamorelin on liver fat and fibrosis progression among HIV-infected patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. He has been selected for membership to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.