The 2017 Michael J. Brody Lecture was presented in October by Dr. C. Ronald Kahn of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kahn joined the impressive list of world-renowned scientists invited by Pharmacology graduate students to present the annual Brody Lecture, which has been a signature event in Pharmacology since its establishment in 1993. Now part of the Distinguished Biomedical Scholar Lecture Series of the Carver College of Medicine, the lecture was established in honor of its namesake, Dr. Michael J. Brody, a long-time Professor of Pharmacology who was an esteemed cardiovascular researcher, an outstanding educator and mentor, and a leading voice in University governance. Dr. Kahn, Section Head of Integrative Physiology and Metabolism at Joslin Diabetes Center and Mary K. Iococca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, is a preeminent investigator of insulin signal transduction and mechanisms of altered signaling in disease. His laboratory’s many seminal discoveries include those of the insulin receptor kinase, its two primary substrates, and the molecular components of the insulin signaling network. He was the first to define alterations in this signaling network in insulin-resistant states, such as type 2 diabetes. Dr. Kahn has received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career, including the Wolf Prize in Medicine, Rolf Luft Award, Allyn Taylor International Prize, Manpei Suzuki and Hamm International Awards, and the highest honors of the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Endocrine Society. His lecture was entitled “Plasticity of Adipose Tissue and Its Communication in Metabolic Disease.” We thank Dr. Kahn for helping us honor the legacy of Michael J. Brody.

Read more about the Michael J. Brody Lecture at https://medicine.uiowa.edu/pharmacology/news-events/michael-j-brody-memorial-lecture.