C. Ronald Kahn, MD,is an internationally recognized researcher, Joslin President and Mary K. Iacocca Professor at Harvard Medical School. Educated at University of Louisville, he trained at Washington University and served as the section head of cellular and molecular physiology of the diabetes branch of NIH. In 1981, he became research director of Joslin, and in 1984, professor of medicine at Harvard. In 1986 he was awarded the Iacocca Professorship and in 2000 became president and director of Joslin Diabetes Center. Kahn has received scientific awards from the American Diabetes Association, U.S. Endocrine Society, British Diabetes and Endocrine societies, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, International Diabetes Federation, and American Federation for Clinical Research, as well as many other honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He led the congressionally established Diabetes Research Working Group.
Over three decades, Kahn and colleagues have performed pioneering research on insulin receptors and their role in type 2 diabetes and other diseases.
Kahn leads a large consortium of investigators at multiple institutions using gene and protein expression studies to define obesity, diabetes, and other insulin-resistant states (the Diabetes Genome Anatomy Project). These studies have defined the role of genes and the environment in the development of type 2 diabetes. This research also provides insight about new targets for the treatment or prevention of this disease.