Stephen O'Rahilly | |
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Born | [1] Dublin, Ireland | 1 April 1958
Citizenship | Ireland United Kingdom |
Alma mater | University College Dublin (MB, BCh, BAO, MD) |
Spouse | Suzy Oakes (m. 1990;died 2011) |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Bariatrics |
Institutions | |
Website | www |
Sir Stephen Patrick O'Rahilly FRS FRCP FRCPI FRCPath FMedSci FRSB MRIA (born 1 April 1958) is an Irish-British physician and scientist known for his research into the molecular pathogenesis of human obesity, insulin resistance and related metabolic and endocrine disorders. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
O'Rahilly was born on 1 April 1958 in Dublin, Ireland. [11] [12] He was educated at Beneavin De La Salle College in Finglas, Dublin. [1] He studied medicine at University College Dublin, graduating in 1981 with Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Obstetrics (MB BCh BAO) degrees. [11] [12] He later continued his studies and completed a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 1987. [12]
O'Rahilly undertook research into Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance at the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School, before joining the University of Cambridge where he is a Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine, Director of the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories, [13] Director of the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit [13] and co-director of the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science. He is also the scientific Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, Associate Faculty at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and honorary consultant physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. [14] [15] [16] He is a professorial fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Notable Cambridge scientists with whom O'Rahilly has shared paper authorship include Krishna Chatterjee, David Dunger, Sadaf Farooqi, Nita Forouhi, Antonio Vidal-Puig, Nick Wareham, and Giles Yeo.
O'Rahilly was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, the Royal Society in 2003. His nomination reads:
Stephen O'Rahilly has made major contributions to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying human disorders of energy balance and metabolism. His work first established that mutations in single genes could result in severe human obesity and that these defects largely acted through disruption of central satiety mechanisms. These findings have altered clinical approaches to the evaluation of the obese child and have identified a subtype of obesity amenable to dramatically effective therapy. His studies of patients with extreme insensitivity to insulin have also provided new insights into human insulin action and its disruption in states of insulin resistance. [17]
He was awarded the Heinrich Wieland Prize [18] in 2002, the InBev-Baillet Latour Health Prize in 2010 [19] and the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine in 2014. [20] He delivered the 2016 Harveian Oration [21] at the Royal College of Physicians of London.
O'Rahilly was knighted in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to medical research. [22] [23]
In 2017, he became a member of the Royal Irish Academy. [24] In 2018, he was made an Honorary Doctor of RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin. [25]
In 2019, O'Rahilly was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (LSW). [26] He was also awarded the Banting Medal for his contributions towards diabetes research by the American Diabetes Association in the same year. [27]
O'Rahilly was awarded the Croonian Medal in 2011 by the Royal College of Physicians. He was awarded it again, by the Royal Society in 2022, this time jointly with Sadaf Farooqi and they presented their lecture [28] at the Royal Society in 2022.
In 2023, O'Rahilly was awarded the OU Health Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes for his outstanding research into the link between obesity and Type 2 diabetes. [29]
O’Rahilly lives in Cambridge, England with his wife, journalist Philippa Lamb, and his stepson Felix Lamb. He was married to Suzy Oakes from 1990 until her death in 2011.
He holds dual Irish and British citizenship. [30]
Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of at least three of the following five medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL).
Insulin resistance (IR) is a pathological condition in which cells either fail to respond normally to the hormone insulin or downregulate insulin receptors in response to hyperinsulinemia.
Abdominal obesity, also known as central obesity and truncal obesity, is the human condition of an excessive concentration of visceral fat around the stomach and abdomen to such an extent that it is likely to harm its bearer's health. Abdominal obesity has been strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other metabolic and vascular diseases.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue and unexplained weight loss. Symptoms may also include increased hunger, having a sensation of pins and needles, and sores (wounds) that do not heal. Often symptoms develop slowly. Long-term complications from high blood sugar include heart disease, stroke, diabetic retinopathy, which can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the lower-limbs, which may lead to amputations. The sudden onset of hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state may occur; however, ketoacidosis is uncommon.
Lipolysis is the metabolic pathway through which lipid triglycerides are hydrolyzed into a glycerol and free fatty acids. It is used to mobilize stored energy during fasting or exercise, and usually occurs in fat adipocytes. The most important regulatory hormone in lipolysis is insulin; lipolysis can only occur when insulin action falls to low levels, as occurs during fasting. Other hormones that affect lipolysis include leptin, glucagon, epinephrine, norepinephrine, growth hormone, atrial natriuretic peptide, brain natriuretic peptide, and cortisol.
Adipose tissue is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. It also contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular endothelial cells and a variety of immune cells such as adipose tissue macrophages. Its main role is to store energy in the form of lipids, although it also cushions and insulates the body.
Adiponectin is a protein hormone and adipokine, which is involved in regulating glucose levels and fatty acid breakdown. In humans, it is encoded by the ADIPOQ gene and is produced primarily in adipose tissue, but also in muscle and even in the brain.
Resistin also known as adipose tissue-specific secretory factor (ADSF) or C/EBP-epsilon-regulated myeloid-specific secreted cysteine-rich protein (XCP1) is a cysteine-rich peptide hormone derived from adipose tissue that in humans is encoded by the RETN gene.
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. The site is located at the southern end of Hills Road in Cambridge, England.
JeffreyFlier is an American physician, endocrinologist; widely cited scientist; the Higginson Professor of Medicine and Physiology at Harvard Medical School; and a Distinguished Service Professor at the same institution. He was the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University from 2007 to 2016.
Bernhard Ludvik is a Specialist in Internal Medicine, board certified in Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. He serves as the Deputy Head of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the General Hospital Vienna.
Patrik Rorsman FRS FMedSci is Professor of Diabetic Medicine at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM), in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
Daniel Joshua Drucker is a Canadian endocrinologist. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he is a professor of medicine at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. He is known for his research into intestinal hormones and their use in the treatment of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases, as well as intestinal failure.
Sir Stephen Robert Bloom FRS is a British Professor of Medicine at Imperial College London where he leads the Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism division.
Ismaa Sadaf Farooqi is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research fellow in Clinical Science, professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a consultant physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK.
Vengalil Krishna Kumar Chatterjee is a British endocrinologist. He is a professor of endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is also the director of the Cambridge Clinical Research Centre, part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Nita Gandhi Forouhi is a British physician and academic, specialising in nutrition and epidemiology. She is Professor of Population Health and Nutrition at the University of Cambridge, the programme leader of the nutritional epidemiology programme of its MRC Epidemiology Unit, and an honorary consultant public health physician with Public Health England.
Charles Nicholas "Nick" Hales was an English physician, biochemist, diabetologist, pathologist, and professor of clinical biochemistry
Antonio Vidal-Puig is a Spanish medical doctor and scientist who works as a Professor of Molecular Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Cambridge (UK), best known for advancing the concept that pharmacological targeting of brown fat may serve to treat overweight and obesity in affected individuals, as well as for introducing the concept of adipose tissue "expandability" as an important factor in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in the context of positive energy balance. His published work focuses on areas such as adipose tissue metabolism and lipotoxicity, regulation of insulin secretion, and the pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. In April 2024, he was granted the rank of doctor honoris causa from the King Juan Carlos University, Madrid.
Deborah Marie Muoio is the George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Disease at Duke University. She is known for her work on diabetes, obesity, and metabolism.