Professor Jerry Greenfield

Professor Jerry Greenfield is an endocrinologist and clinical researcher. He is Head of the Department of Endocrinology and Director, Diabetes Services, at St Vincent’s Hospital. His current positions and roles include: Professor of Medicine, University of New South Wales; Editorial Board member, Clinical Obesity.

Professor Greenfield previously held an NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, which allowed him to study in the Departments of Medicine and Clinical Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK (2005-6, Supervisors: Professor Stephen O’Rahilly and Dr Sadaf Farooqi). He undertook a PhD at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research from 2001–2004, under the supervision of Professor Donald Chisholm, Professor Lesley Campbell and Professor Katherine Samaras. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with Honours (class 1) from the University of NSW in 1995.

His research is entirely driven by clinical outcomes. Over the past five years, Professor Greenfield has published more than 175 manuscripts in top-ranked endocrinology and diabetes journals. He has recently been invited to speak at international conferences including the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (2022) and the International Congress of Obesity (2022), as well as national meetings including the Annual Scientific Meetings of the Endocrine Society of Australia and the Australian Diabetes Society. He is an Executive National Council Member of the Australian Diabetes Society.

Professor Greenfield’s recent discoveries have identified a group of overweight and obese people who appear to be at lower risk of diabetes and heart disease than other obese individuals. A major focus of his laboratory is to establish the factors that confer this metabolic protection and to devise a set of clinical criteria that will assist in their identification in clinical practice. The outcome of this research will expand knowledge regarding the relative importance of metabolic abnormalities, such as abdominal and liver fat, on the development of insulin resistance and diabetes and complicating factors. This work will determine what protects the overweight and obese people and whether they remain at lower risk of metabolic disease over long periods of time.

Professor Greenfield is also focused on the identification of specific genetic variations that cause diabetes and obesity in humans. His current focus relates to identifying alternative pathophysiological contributors to type 1 diabetes that may contribute to the development of macrovascular and microvascular complications. Physiological studies have identified insulin resistance as a common abnormality in type 1 diabetes that can be targeted to improve glycaemic control.

Professor Greenfield and Dr Jennifer Snaith recently established the ‘AUStralian Type 1 diabetes mellitus Adjuncts Group (AUS-TAG)’, which aims to facilitate the generation of clinical trial evidence for adjunctive therapies in type 1 diabetes. Their novel strategy aims to improve the access of repurposed medications to the people with type 1 diabetes at greatest cardiovascular risk. This strategy signals a departure from current insulin-only standard of care, facilitating improved access to adjunctive medications such as metformin and semaglutide. Their team, the suite of gold-standard investigative clinical research tools, the established collaborations with Australian researchers and partnerships with Novo Nordisk, the Australian Diabetes Society and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, are a perfect union to ensure successful execution of adjunctive trials, resulting in the greatest impact for people living with type 1 diabetes to reduce their cardiovascular burden.