Gökhan S. Hotamisligil (; born June 24, 1962) is a

Turkish-American Turkish Americans () or American Turks are Americans of ethnic Turkish origin. The term "Turkish Americans" can therefore refer to ethnic Turkish immigrants to the United States, as well as their American-born descendants, who originate eith ...

physician scientist; James Stevens Simmons Chair of Genetics and Metabolism at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH); Director of the Harvard Chan Center on Causes and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease (CAP-CVD) and associate member of Harvard-MIT Broad Institute, Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the Joslin Diabetes Center. Hotamisligil has been a pioneer in research efforts to explain the mechanistic basis of common chronic metabolic diseases; particularly

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

fatty liver disease Fatty liver disease (FLD), also known as hepatic steatosis and steatotic liver disease (SLD), is a condition where excess fat builds up in the liver. Often there are no or few symptoms. Occasionally there may be tiredness or pain in the upper r ...

, and

atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis, characterized by development of abnormalities called lesions in walls of arteries. This is a chronic inflammatory disease involving many different cell types and is driven by eleva ...

. His work has led to the emergence of novel concepts that have altered the understanding of metabolic disease pathogenesis.

Biography

Gökhan Hotamisligil was born in

Rize Rize (; ; ; ka, რიზე}; ) is a coastal city in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Rize Province and Rize District.Vakfikebir,

Turgutlu Turgutlu, also known as Kasamba (''Cassaba'' or ''Casaba'') is a municipality and district of Manisa Province, Turkey Magnesia on the Maeander. Its area is 549 km2, and its population is 175,401 (2022). Its elevation is . The present name de ...

, and Gediz; he graduated from the public Ankara Atatürk Anadolu High School in 1980. He then received his degree in medicine from

Ankara University Medical School Ankara University Medical School is a medical school affiliated with Ankara University and located in the Sıhhiye of Ankara, Turkey, was established in 1945 as the second medical school in the country. The opening of this institution was prompted ...

in 1986 and his PhD from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

(HMS) in 1994. Hotamisligil joined the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

(HSPH) as an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition & Division of Biological Sciences. He was promoted to tenured professor in 2003. He founded the Department of Genetics & Complex Diseases in the same year and served as the chair of the department for 16 years. From 2014 to 2024, the Sabri Ülker Center for Nutrient, Genetic, and Metabolic Research at HSPH was established by the Ülker family to honor their late father

Sabri Ülker Sabri Ülker (1920 – 12 June 2012) was a Turkish industrialist and businessman, and the founder of Ülker. Early life Sabri Ülker was born in 1920 in Crimea.Pelin TurgutÜlker: Ambitious confectioner snaps up Belgium's Godiva ''Financial Times ...

and to support the research in the laboratory of Hotamisligil. Hotamisligil has been recognized with many fellowships and awards over the course of his career. These include election as a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, the Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research, the Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award from the

American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes, including type 1 diabetes ...

, the Wertheimer Award for Outstanding Basic Research Contributions in the field of obesity from IASO, the

Danone International Prize for Nutrition Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's produ ...

, the Roy Greep Award for Outstanding Research from the

Endocrine Society The Endocrine Society is a professional, international medical organization in the field of endocrinology and metabolism, founded in 1916 as The Association for the Study of Internal Secretions. The official name of the organization was changed t ...

, EASD–Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize for Excellence, The John K. and Mary E. Davidson Lectureship Award, among others. He was featured as an exhibitor for his project
Molecular Architecture
in a join exhibit with Refik Anadol Studios at

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 2024. He has also been the recipient of 2004 TUBITAK Science Award, Koç Science Award and elected member of the

Turkish Academy of Sciences The Turkish Academy of Sciences ( – TÜBA) is an autonomous scholarly association aimed at promoting scientific activities in Turkey. Although it is attached to the office of the Presidency and is largely funded by the government, it maintains f ...

. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees of

Kadir Has University Kadir Has University (), often abbreviated as KHAS, is a private non-profit university in Fatih, Istanbul, established in 1997 by Kadir Has, the late Turkish industrialist and philanthropist.

. Hotamisligil serves in many editorial boards including

Science Translational Medicine ''Science Translational Medicine'' is an interdisciplinary biomedical journal established in October 2009 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It publishes basic, biomedical, translational, and clinical research about hu ...

Cell Metabolism ''Cell Metabolism'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering physiology, with an emphasis on understanding the molecular basis of how the body self-regulates in the face of change, and how disturbances in these balances can lead to di ...

EMBO molecular Medicine ''EMBO Molecular Medicine'' is an open-access peer-reviewed medical journal covering research in molecular medicine. The journal was published by Wiley-Blackwell together with the European Molecular Biology Organization since its launch in 2009, ...

Journal of Clinical Investigation The ''Journal of Clinical Investigation'' is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering biomedical research. It was established in 1924 and is published by the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Articles focus on the mechanisms ...

, PlosBiology, and others.

Research

Hotamisligil’s research efforts focus on the molecular and genetic basis of common and complex diseases, particularly those associated with

and aging including

, carvdiovascular disease,

, and

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

. His research examines the mechanisms of

nutrient sensing Nutrient sensing is a cell (biology), cell's ability to recognize and respond to fuel substrates such as glucose. Each type of fuel used by the cell requires an alternate pathway of utilization and accessory molecules such as enzymes and Cofactor ( ...

and response pathways as they relate to immune and metabolic homeostasis. Hotamisligil’s work has been instrumental in the emergence of the immunological basis of obesity and diabetes and the field of

immunometabolism Immunometabolism is a branch of biology that studies the interplay between metabolism and immunology in all organisms. In particular, immunometabolism is the study of the molecular and biochemical underpinnings for i) the metabolic regulation of imm ...

^,^,. Today obesity and diabetes are understood as states of chronic, low-grade, sustained, systemic and metabolically orchestrated inflammation; also known as �
metaflammation
” a concept introduced by Hotamisligil; which underlies the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases. In a 199
paper
Hotamışlıgil lab published a study showing that genetic ablation of an inflammatory mediator or its receptor in obese mice resulted in the improvement of insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism. This study provided definitive proof that metaflammation was a critical component of chronic metabolic diseases. In a 2002 paper, the Hotamisligil lab established a link between activation of the inflammatory and stress kinase

JNK c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs), were originally identified as kinases that bind and phosphorylate c-Jun on Ser-63 and Ser-73 within its transcriptional activation domain. They belong to the mitogen-activated protein kinase family, and are r ...

and consequent inhibition of insulin receptor signaling via phosphorylation of the insulin receptor substrate (IRS-1). Since then, his lab has identified multiple other significant molecules and pathways as key modulators of chronic metabolic inflammation, insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in obesity, including the double stranded RNA dependent protein kinase PKR and the transmembrane protein STAMP2. The Hotamisligil lab also established the importance of

organelle In cell biology, an organelle is a specialized subunit, usually within a cell (biology), cell, that has a specific function. The name ''organelle'' comes from the idea that these structures are parts of cells, as Organ (anatomy), organs are to th ...

homeostasis in metabolic tissues and the role of organelle dysfunction in metabolic disease. In particular, they established that chronic

endoplasmic reticulum The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a part of a transportation system of the eukaryote, eukaryotic cell, and has many other important functions such as protein folding. The word endoplasmic means "within the cytoplasm", and reticulum is Latin for ...

(ER) dysfunction is a feature of metabolic tissues in obesity, linked to regulation of

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

action and glucose and lipid metabolism. In subsequent studies they showed that the increase in

ER stress The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a cellular stress response related to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. It has been found to be conserved between mammalian species, as well as yeast and worm organisms. The UPR is activated in response t ...

in the obese condition is in part related to defects in

autophagy Autophagy (or autophagocytosis; from the Greek language, Greek , , meaning "self-devouring" and , , meaning "hollow") is the natural, conserved degradation of the cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components through a lysosome-depe ...

, the cellular recycling system, as well as changes in lipid metabolism and ER membrane composition and result in alterations ER calcium homeostasis. Recently, the Hotamisligil lab also delineated abnormal interactions between ER and

mitochondria A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is us ...

in the context of metabolic disease that result in aberrant calcium metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction. More recently, Hotamisligil lab performed the most detailed molecular architectural analysis of subcellular structures in hepatocytes, in their native liver tissue environment in leand obese liver and during feeding and fasting cycles. These pioneering studies demonstrated the structural changes that are caused by obesity and nutritional status and defined a novel mechanism of metabolic homeostasis through molecular architectural regulation Hotamisligil lab integrates these cellular and molecular stress pathways to nutrients through their work in an integrated field on lipid trafficking and signaling with a focus on fatty acid binding proteins, de novo lipogenesis products, and new hormones. In a 2008 paper, Hotamisligil lab described a lipid natured hormone, which they named as a “ lipokine” and showed its beneficial actions on lipid and glucose metabolism. In 2015, Hotamisligil lab described a novel

hormone A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of cell signaling, signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs or tissues by complex biological processes to regulate physio ...

that is produced by the adipose tissue during fasting to regulate hepatic glucose production and

pancreatic The pancreas (plural pancreases, or pancreata) is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine ...

activity. Therapeutic targeting of both of these molecules is pursued for the treatment of metabolic diseases. In a 2017 paper, Hotamisligil lab has identified a transcription factor,

NRF1 Nuclear respiratory factor 1, also known as Nrf1, Nrf-1, NRF1 and NRF-1, encodes a protein that homodimerizes and functions as a transcription factor which activates the expression of some key metabolic genes regulating cellular growth and nucl ...

, that both senses and responds to excess cholesterol in the ER and acts together with SREBP2 as

yin-yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...

to keep ER cholesterol levels within a safe, narrow range. The lab also defined the mechanism of interactions between these two critical pathways controlling cholesterol balance. Additional studies demonstrated that NRF1 is a critical defender of metabolic homeostasis under the most challenging of conditions, such as brown adipose tissue challenged by cold, or the integrity of the cells with the highest secretory demands. In 2022, Hotamisligil lab described the discovery of a new hormone complex called Fabkin, formed by FABP4-ADK-NDPK proteins and defined its molecular mechanism of action. These studies also demonstrated a remarkable therapeutic activity of targeting this complex in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The lab now pursues innovative collaborative models to realize the translational potential of this target and pursuing paths towards clinical applications As of 2025, Hotamisligil has authored over 200 publications, which have received in excess of 85,000 citations and was named as an inventor on multiple patents. He has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 115. Hotamisligil has also been a mentor to many students and fellows who are now pursuing their independent scientific careers in many capacities around the world. He has been an advocate of science as a vehicle of diplomacy between cultures and delivered more than 500 lectures around the world.

Personal life

Hotamisligil is married to Selen Ciliv, a physician scientist specialized in assisted

infertility In biology, infertility is the inability of a male and female organism to Sexual reproduction, reproduce. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy organism that has reached sexual maturity, so children who have not undergone puberty, whi ...

treatment technologies and clinical applications and a consultant to

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

. Their two children Leyla and Derin live in the United States and Canada. His late father Hulki Hotamisligil was a physician and mother Güner Hotamisligil was a teacher who served in remote regions of Turkey to support

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

Selected awards

1991 Lucille P. Markey Predoctoral Fellowship in Developmental Biology 1997 Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences, Pew Charitable Trusts 2004 Recipient of the Turkish Scientific and Research Council, TUBITAK Award 2007 Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award, American Diabetes Association 2009 Elected Fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science 2010 Wertheimer Award, International Association for the Study of Obesity 2010 Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research 2012 Richard J. Havel Lecture 2013 Koç Foundation Science Award 2014 Danone International Prize for Nutrition 2015 Roy O. Greep Award for Outstanding Research, Endocrine Society 2017 Hans L. Falk Memorial Lecture 2018 EASD–Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize for Excellence 2019 Keystone Symposia-- Immunometabolism, Metaflammation and Metabolic Disorders

External links

Harvard page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotamisligil, Gökhan S. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty Turkish geneticists American academics of Turkish descent American geneticists Ankara University Faculty of Medicine alumni 1962 births Harvard Medical School alumni Living people Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science People from Pazar, Rize