Gerold Grodsky, PhD

Dr. Grodsky no longer manages his own laboratory, but is a consultant to laboratories in the Diabetes Center.  He was the developer of the first precipitating radio immunoassay (insulin). His group published over 250 papers on the mechanisms involved in the synthesis, storage and secretion of insulin, with emphasis on the kinetics and quantitative relationships of these mechanisms. From these studies came the description of the fast and slow phases of insulin release and the hypothesis that insulin is stored in compartments of differing availability for release. The rapid phase of insulin release was shown to be vital in the maintenance of glucose homeostasis and is being utilized in the design of the closed-loop artificial pancreas, faster acting beta-cell secretagogues, and fast absorbing insulin preparations.

He is the recipient of the Rumbaugh Award from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the R.H Williams/R. Levine Award from the Western Metabolism Club, and the Merit Award from the National Institutes of Public Health. Since 1994, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation gives an Annual Gerold Grodsky Award for Basic Research in Diabetes. Also, in 2004, the Western Regional Islet Group created the Gerold Grodsky Lectureship to be presented annually. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the UCSF Diabetes Center in 2009. In 2010, UCSF created the Gerold Grodsky, PhD Chair in Diabetes Research.