Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, is a renowned endocrinologist and a world authority on diabetes. Dr. Philipson’s clinical practice primary focus is on type 1 diabetes and rare forms of diabetes, and he has a multidisciplinary clinic to treat both adults and children. His approach to care centers around acknowledging the unique needs of each individual patient, taking into account their genetics and family history, as well as their specific diagnosis, in order to provide a customized treatment plan.
Dr. Philipson is the founding director of the Kovler Diabetes Center. Together with his colleagues, Drs. Bell, Greeley and Naylor, they have created a center for monogenic diabetes and established the first United States registry for neonatal and monogenic diabetes to follow and treat patients with complex diabetes.
For over 30 years, Dr. Philipson has been devoted to research that improves care for people with diabetes. His career first focused on cellular and translational studies related to insulin secretion, where he contributed to basic research in the control of insulin secretion via ion channels and calcium regulation in pancreatic beta cells. Currently, Dr. Philipson’s research is examining the genetic causes of diabetes and prevention of type 1 diabetes. He is also one of the principal investigators (PIs) and a member of the steering committee for the RADIANT study, a multicenter National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney (NIDDK) Program working to identify atypical forms of diabetes (https://www.atypicaldiabetesnetwork.org/). As an accomplished author and co-author, Dr. Philipson has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles and co-edited “Atypical Diabetes,” a textbook printed by the American Diabetes Association.
Dr. Philipson has been an active member of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for his entire career including as the 2019 President for Science & Medicine, President of the Chicago/Northern Illinois ADA Community Board, a member of the ADA National Board, and on a variety of other committees. Presently, he is part of the steering committee for the ADA-EASD Precision Diabetes Medicine initiative. Finally, Dr. Philipson is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, most notably the Banting medal for service as part of the 79th Annual Scientific Sessions (2019) for his term as President for Medicine and Science, and in 2018, he was inducted as a Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois at the 54th Convocation, the highest civilian honor of the State of the Illinois.
