Antonio Bianco M.D. PhD. is a Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago. His laboratory has helped establish the importance of local control of thyroid hormone activation and inactivation in development, metabolic control and energy homeostasis. Dr. Bianco’s initial interest in this area formed while he was a fellow at Harvard Medical School. At that time, deiodinases were known to react homeostatically to changes in plasma thyroid hormone levels in order to preserve the intracellular levels of T3. As a fellow under J. Enrique Silva MD, Dr. Bianco built upon this concept making the seminal observation that thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue, a specialized organ that functions to warm up the body, is critically dependent on the local activation of T4 via the type 2 deiodinase (D2). Subsequently, they discovered the molecular link between deiodination and thermogenesis, specifically that the UCP-1 gene, key for brown adipose tissue thermogenesis, is transcriptionally up-regulated by T3. Upon returning to the University of Sao Paulo, Dr. Bianco and his students demonstrated that D2 activation leads to the saturation of the T3 receptors in brown adipose tissue, creating a state of localized thyrotoxicosis. This work laid the groundwork for the modern concept that deiodinases regulate thyroid hormone signaling on a tissue-specific basis without antecedent changes in plasma thyroid hormone levels.
B. Positions
1985-93 Assistant Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil
1993-01 Associate Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil
1998-08 Associate Professor, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
2002-07 Director of Research, Thyroid Section, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
2007-08 Chief, Thyroid Section, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
2008-14 Chief, Division of Endocrinology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
2011-12 Vice Chair Clinical Affairs DoM, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
2014-15 Chief, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Rush University Medical Center
2014-15 Executive Vice-Chairman, Department Medicine, Rush University Medical Center
2015-17 President, Rush University Medical Group
2015-17 Vice-Dean Clinical Affairs, Rush University Medical College
2016-17 Senior-Vice President, Rush University Medical Center
2018- Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago
C. Awards and Honors
1983 Manoel de Abreu Prize, Santa Casa School of Medicine, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1991 Ethicon Prize of Surgery, Sao Paulo Medical Association
1995 Refinações de Milho Brazil Prize of Pediatrics, Sao Paulo Medical Association
2000 LATS Prize, Latin American Thyroid Society
2004 Van Meter Award, American Thyroid Association
2005 Membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation
2005 Distinguished Service Award, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2006 Jack H. Oppenheimer Lecture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN
2009 Eric Reiss Memorial Lecture, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami FL
2010 Membership in the Association of American Physicians
2011 Honorary Membership, Brazilian Endocrine Society
2011 Segal Lecture, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York NY
2011 Membership in the American Clinical and Climatological Association
2012 Sidney Ingbar Visiting Professor, BIDMC, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA
2013 Rosalind Pitt-Rivers Medal, British Thyroid Association
2013 Samuel F. Haines Visiting Professor, Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN
2014 Charles Arthur Weaver Professor of Cancer Research, Rush University Medical Center
2015-16 President, American Thyroid Association
2016 E. Chester Ridgway Visiting Professor, University of Colorado, Aurora CO
2019 Farahe Maloof Visiting Professor, MGH and Harvard Medical School, Boston MA
2020 The John B. Stanbury Thyroid Pathophysiology Medal, American Thyroid Association
2020 The Merck Pinchera Prize, European Thyroid Association