Steven Grinspoon, PhD

About

Steven Grinspoon, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He Directs the MGH Program in Nutritional Metabolism, and is the Director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard. His work investigates the neuroendocrine regulation of body composition, and physiologic consequences of fat distribution on cardiovascular disease and inflammation. Specifically, he has investigated the effects of reduced growth hormone on metabolic dysregulation in obesity and was the first to propose the use of a GHRH analogue to increase endogenous GH secretion on lipodystrophy and generalized obesity. This strategy has shown that augmentation of endogenous GH pulsatility selectively reduces visceral fat as well as liver fat, improves carotid IMT, and reduces inflammatory indices. This work led to the FDA approval of tesamorelin for excess visceral fat accumulation in HIV-infected patients. In addition he investigates the inflammatory mechanisms by which ectopic fat and other metabolic perturbations contribute to CVD in HIV, and in this regard he led the AHA State of the Science Conference on CVD in HIV. In addition, is leading the large multicenter REPRIEVE study, the first study of a primary prevention strategy for CVD in HIV. At MGH he is PI of the Harvard Training Grant in Nutritional Metabolism and is an active mentor. He has served on the Harvard faculty since 1995, and is well recognized for his work, selected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians for his scientific contributions. He received the American Federation of Medical Research Investigator of the Year Award in 2005 and the Edward H. Ahrens Jr. Award for Patient Oriented Research in 2014 from the Association for Clinical and Translational Science as well as the 2016 Aurbach Award for Translational Research from the Endocrine Society. Dr. Grinspoon will serve as PI and Director for the NORC-H.

Key Publications

Falutz J, Allas S, Blot K, Potvin D, Kotler D, Somero M, Berger B, Brown S, Richmond G, Fessel J, Turner R, Grinspoon S. Metabolic Effects of a Growth Hormone-Releasing Factor in HIV Patients. N Engl J Med 2007;357:2359-70. PMID: 18057338.
Subramanian S*, Tawakol A*, Burdo T, Abbara S, Wei, J, Vijayakumar J, Corsini E, Abdelbarky A, Zanni M, Hoffman U, Williams K, Lo J^†, Grinspoon S^†. Arterial Inflammation in HIV-Infected Patients. JAMA 2012. Jul 25;308(4):379-86. PMCID: PMC3724172.
Stanley TL, Feldpausch M, Oh J, Branch K, Lee H, Torriani M, Grinspoon SK. Effects of Tesamorelin on Visceral Fat and Liver Fat in HIV-infected Patients with Abdominal Fat Accumulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2014 Jul 23-30;312(4):380-9. PMCID: PMC4363137.
Lo J, Lu M, Ihenachor EJ, Wei J, Looby S, Oh J, Fitch K, Zimmerman C, Hwang J, Abbara A, Plutzky J, Robbins G, Tawakol A, Hoffman U, Grinspoon S. Effects of Statin Therapy on Coronary Artery Plaque Volume and High Risk Plaque Morphology in HIV-Infected Patients with Subclinical Atherosclerosis: A randomized, Double Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial. Lancet HIV Lancet HIV 2015;2:e52-e63. PMCID: PMC4820828
Zanni MV, Toribio M, Wilkes MQ, Lu MT, Burdo TH, Walker J, Autissier P, Foldyna B, Stone L, Martin A, Cope F, Abruzzezse B, Brady T, Hoffmann U, William KC, El-Fakhri G, Grinspoon SK. Application of a Novel CD206+ Macrophage-Specific Arterial Imaging Strategy in HIV. J Infect In Press 2017.
Thomou T, Mori MA, Dreyfuss JM, Ro T Nageswara Rao, Winnay J, Grinspoon SK, Gorden P, Kahn CR. Adipose-Derived Circulating miRNAs Regulate Gene Expression in Other Tissues. Nature. 2017 Feb 23;542(7642):450-455. doi: 10.1038/nature21365.

Education

MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 1988
BA, Political Science, Cornell University, 1983

Director

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

MGH Endowed Chair in Neuroendocrinology and Metabolism

Director, Program in Nutritional Metabolism

Contact Information
sgrinspoon@partners.org • Phone: (617) 726-3890