Stephen R. Hammes, M.D., Ph.D., Will Present the 33rd Annual GSRF Keynote Address
Dr. Hammes, an established expert in endocrinology, will cap off a day of student presentations.
Stephen R. Hammes, M.D., Ph.D., the Louis S. Wolk Distinguished Professor of Medicine, chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, will be the keynote speaker at the 33rd annual Graduate Student Research Forum on March 15. He will present "Androgens in the Ovary: How a Frog Oocyte can Generate a Career in Reproductive Medicine."
Prior to joining the University of Rochester, Dr. Hammes served on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he was a W.W. Caruth Scholar in Biomedical Research and co-director of the Endocrinology Fellowship program.
Dr. Hammes has served as editor-in-chief of the scientific journals Molecular Endocrinology and Endocrinology and is currently deputy editor of the Journal of the Endocrine Society. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, actively serves on National Institutes of Health and United States Department of Defense study sections and is the president-elect of the Endocrine Society
Dr. Hammes’ research interests include steroidogenesis and steroid signaling with a focus on extranuclear, or nongenomic, steroid effects. He studies these processes in the setting of female reproduction, where his lab has demonstrated the importance of androgen signaling in the ovary, showing that a lack of androgen signaling results in diminished ovarian reserve, while too much androgen signaling contributes to the most common disorder of female reproduction, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Dr. Hammes also studies steroid hormone signaling in hormone-sensitive cancers such as prostate cancer and lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). More recently, his laboratory has become interested in the interplay between steroids, cancer cells and their microenvironment, with a focus on polymorphonuclear cells in innate immunity.
Dr. Hammes graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in chemistry from Cornell University. He completed his M.D. and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at Duke University, followed by an internship and residency in general medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of California in San Francisco.