Translational Research at the VA

Christos S. Mantzoros, MD, DSc, PhD h.c. mult. is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Adjunct Professor at Boston University School of Medicine. He has also served as a Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

He currently serves as the Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Boston VA Healthcare System, where he created de novo a leading academic division true to its tripartite mission and as the Director of Human Nutrition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School.
He has served as Associate Fellowship Program Director at BIDMC and later as Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Fellowship Program Founding Director at the Boston VA Healthcare System. He has taught courses at the undergraduate level, at the Medical School and postgraduate level and has organized several CME courses. He has mentored in his own Laboratory more than 175 young scientists who currently hold key positions in clinical medicine, academia, industry as well as governmental agencies and nongovernmental including organizations.

Dr. Mantzoros has published as an editor two books (one on “Diabetes and Obesity” and one on “Nutrition and Metabolism” with more than two editions each). His research has resulted in more than 662 publications under his name in Medline in addition to more than 175 publications under the collaborative Look Ahead Research Group and more than 270 chapters and reviews or editorials, and has received more than 125,000 citations and an H index of 137 with an i10 index of 534 (Google Scholar).

Dr. Mantzoros has been ranked as number 1 in the world in leptin and adipokine research, number 2 in adiponectin research, and in the top 0.1% of experts on obesity and NASH on ExpertScape, which objectively ranks scientists and institutions by their expertise in more than 27,000 biomedical topics and is among the highest 1% of cited investigators on the basis of citations and H index.
He leads two active laboratories where he performs basic and translational research and has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1996. He has received many grants (more than 65) from NIH, Depart. of Defense, Foundations, Industry and Philanthropy over his 25 years of service at BIDMC, resulting in $26.5M in direct costs and more than $40 million in direct and indirect costs for his own projects and an estimated more than another $50 million for collaborative projects. He has applied and received patents, has co-founded successful companies and has served as a board member, an advisor, or head of the scientific advisory boards of non-profit foundations as well as government and state agencies or commissions as well as for-profit private businesses and non-profit entities. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Metabolism the impact of which more than quadrupled under his leadership (current IF: 8.7) and is on the editorial board of several scientific journals worldwide.

For his research discoveries and public health service, Dr. Mantzoros has received four honorary PhDs, several universities worldwide have awarded Dr. Mantzoros honorary professorships and visiting professorships and the Alexander Technological Institute of Thessaloniki has named their nutrition laboratories after his name. He has or is supervising PhD thesis work in several nations worldwide (USA, Sweden, Germany, Greece, etc.) and is actively collaborating with many research groups worldwide.
Dr. Mantzoros has been elected a member of ASCI and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. He has been given several awards including but not limited to: the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (Frontiers in Science Award), the American Diabetes Association (Novartis Award in Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases), the North American Association for the Study of Obesity/the Obesity Society (Lilly Award), the American Society for Nutrition (Mead Johnson Award), the HypoCCS award in Paris, France, the Humboldt Foundation of Germany (the Wilhelm Friedrich Bessel Award), by the American Federation of Medical Research (the Outstanding Investigator Award), by the American Physiological Society (FASEB, the Berson Award Lecture), by the New England Hellenic Medical and Dental Association (Hygeia award), amongst many others. He has also received the BIDMC and Harvard Medical School awards for Excellence in Mentoring.

Most recently, he has received several prestigious awards for his lifetime achievements: the 2017 Obesity Society TOPS Award, the 2018 Endocrine Society Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award, the 2018 European Society of Endocrinology Geoffrey Harris Prize, and the 2018 American Society of Nutrition’s Robert H. Herman Award, the 2020 American Society of Nutrition’s E. V. McCollum Award, the 2020 Gerald Reaven Distinguished Leader in Insulin Resistance Award by the World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, and the 2021 Korean Society of Nutrition Award co-administered with the American Society for Nutrition.