Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology

Robert J. Smith, MD

Director, division of endocrinology
Director, the Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology
Program director, clinical fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism
Professor of medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical staff member, Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital and the Providence Veterans Administration Hospital

MD, Harvard Medical School, 1973
Board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism

Robert J. Smith joined the faculty in 2000 as director of the division of endocrinology and the new Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology. His education included a BA in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, a BMS degree from Dartmouth Medical School, and an MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed internal medicine residency training at Duke University and subspecialty training in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD) and the Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA). He was a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1978-2000 with appointments at the Joslin Diabetes Center, the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

His honors include the AMA Goldberger Fellowship Research Award, the Harvard division of medical ethics Responsible Conduct of Research Award, and appointment to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has served on multiple editorial boards including, at present, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Endocrinology, the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the Journal of Growth Hormone and IGF Research. He has published numerous research articles, reviews and chapters, and has trained more than 70 research students and postdoctoral research fellows.

A major focus of Smith's research is on the mechanisms of cellular signaling by insulin, insulin-like growth factors and growth hormone, and the mechanisms through which changes in signaling lead to human disease. His work is directed in particular to the role of altered hormone signaling in diabetes mellitus, genetic and acquired growth disorders, and catabolic states associated with severe illness. In addition to studies on cell surface hormone receptors and intracellular signaling mechanisms, he has extensively investigated nutritional factors that are interactive with hormone signaling mechanisms. The experimental approaches utilized in his laboratory extend methodologically from basic molecular biology to clinical studies in an effort to understand the molecular basis for clinically relevant disease processes.

Current research projects include studies on a number of novel proteins that recently have been cloned in his laboratory, which may serve as regulators of signaling or may define new signaling pathways. Active clinical research projects include the BARI-2D National Institutes of Health study on the effects of insulin vs. insulin sensitizers on cardiovascular disease outcomes in Type 2 diabetes, on which he is the Brown University site diabetes principal investigator.

Representative Publications

Giorgino F, Logoluso F, Davalli AM, Napoli R, Laviola L, Hirshman MF, Horton ES, Weir GC, Smith RJ. Islet transplantation restores normal levels of insulin receptor and substrate tyrosine phosphorylation and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity in skeletal muscle and myocardium of streptozocin diabetic rats. Diabetes 1999; 48:801-812.
Mao Y, Ling PR, Fitzgibbons TP, McCowen KC, Frick GP, Bistrian BR, Smith RJ. Endotoxin-induced inhibition of growth hormone receptor signaling in rat liver in vivo. Endocrinology 1999; 140:5505-5515.
Giorgino F, de Robertis O, Laviola L, Montrone C, Perrini S, McCowen KC, Smith RJ. The sentrin-conjugating enzyme mUbc9 interacts with GLUT4 and GLUT1 glucose transporters and regulates transporter levels in skeletal muscle cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2000; 97:1125-1130.
McCowen KC, Ling PR, Ciccarone A, Mao Y, Chow JC, Bistrian, BR, Smith RJ. Sustained endotoxemia leads to marked down-regulation of early steps in the insulin signaling cascade. Crit Care Med 2001; 29:839-846.
Giovannone B, Lee E, Laviola L, Giorgino F, Cleveland KA, Smith RJ. Two novel proteins that are linked to insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) receptors by the Grb10 adapter and modulate IGF-I signaling. J Biol Chem 2003; 278: 31564-31573.
Fanning PJ, Emkey G, Smith RJ, Grodzinsky AJ, Szasz N, Trippel SB. Mechanical regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in articular cartilage. J Biol Chem 2003; 278: in press.

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