On Friday, March 22, the Pharmacology Department hosted Dr. Ronald Evans as the speaker for the annual Joseph Larner Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology. His talk was titled: Nuclear Receptors: Overcoming Insulin Resistance and the Obesity Epidemic.
Ronald Evans is an authority on hormones, both their normal activities and their roles in disease. A major achievement in Evans’ lab was the discovery of a large family of molecules, called nuclear hormone receptors, which respond to various steroid hormones, vitamin A and thyroid hormones. These hormones help control sugar, salt, calcium, and fat metabolism, affecting our daily health as well as treatment of disease. The receptors Evans dis-covered are primary targets in the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and leukemia, as well as osteoporosis and asthma.
In addition, Evans’ studies led to a new class of PPAR delta drugs called exercise mimetics, which promote the benefits of fitness without the need to train. Exercise mimetics represent an important advance in addressing problems arising from excess weight and obesity, such as frailty, muscular dystrophy, and type 2 diabetes.
He was introduced by Dr. Stephen Abbott, who coordinates the annual lectures and by Dr. Ira Schulman, who was a PhD mentee of Dr. Evans.
The Larner Lecture serves to honor Dr. Joseph Larner (January 9, 1921 – January 28, 2014), who served as Chairman of the Pharmacology Department from 1969-1990. He led a distinguished career, garnering numerous scientific awards including the Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement in Diabetes Research, the Virginia Lifetime Achievement Award in Science, and he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Larner’s notable research was focused on the study of insulin activity with the goal of improving diabetes treatments and, in 1974, he founded the UVa Diabetes Center for Research. The Larner family—wife Frances and sons Andrew, James, and Paul—endowed the Joseph Larner Annual Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology to explore the pervasive role of metabolism/cell signaling in human disease. Gifts from the family, as well as Dr. Larner’s UVa colleagues and other scientists, who respected his work, provide support for this annual lecture, and continue Dr. Larner’s legacy at the School of Medicine.
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