Simeon I. Taylor MD, PhD

Dr. Simeon Taylor received a B.A. from Harvard College followed by Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School. He completed clinical training in the specialty of Internal Medicine and subspecialty of Endocrinology & Metabolism at Massachusetts General Hospital and National Institutes of Health. He worked in the Intramural Research Program of NIDDK, where he occupied positions of increasing responsibility, including Chief of the Diabetes Branch (1989-2000). His work at NIDDK was recognized by the Outstanding Service Award, Unites States Public Health Service (1990) and the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award of the American Diabetes Association (1992). In addition, he served as Director of the NIH Inter-Institute Clinical Training Program in Endocrinology & Metabolism (1995-1998). While working at NIH, Dr. Taylor’s research focused primarily on genetics of monogenic forms of diabetes – including identification of mutations in the insulin receptor gene. In addition, he initiated clinical studies that led to FDA approval of metreleptin as a treatment for generalized lipodystrophy. Based on this research, Dr. Taylor is listed as an inventor on the US patent covering the use of leptin receptor agonists to treat lipodystrophy. He moved to the pharmaceutical industry in 2000: first at Eli Lilly (2000-2002) where he was a Lilly Research Fellow in Endocrine Research and later at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he served as Vice President for Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease Research (2002-2010) and Vice President for Research & Scientific Affairs (2010-2013). During his time at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he made substantial contributions to R&D leading to several approved drugs – including saxagliptin, dapagliflozin, and apixaban.

Dr. Taylor joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2013, where he currently serves as a Professor of Medicine and Program Director for the NIDDK-funded T32 Institutional Research Training Program in Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolic Complications. He previously served as Program Director for the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Obesity Research Center (2015-2021) and Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Investigation (2017-2022). His research is funded by NIDDK and focuses on pharmacogenomics of diabetes drugs (SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP1 receptor agonists). In addition, he has served as the primary mentor to his co-author, Dr. Zhinous Shahidzadeh Yazdi, during her post-doctoral training (2020-present).