Joseph Avruch, M.D., Ph.D., a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine in the Department of Molecular Biology, will speak Thursday, Sept. 21, at the WSU School of Medicine's ninth-annual Graduate Student Research Day. Dr. Avruch is internationally recognized for a series of discoveries that have enabled an understanding of how insulin, related growth factors and insulin antagonists control cell function.

Since 1979, Dr. Avruch has served as chief of the Diabetes Unit at Massachussetts General Hospital. He is director of the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Boston Area Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center . He is also a member of the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Dr. Avruch directs a vigorous ongoing program of laboratory-based research and is the author of more than 120 peer-reviewd articles. In 2003, he was named "Most Highly Cited" in biology and biochemistry by the Institute for Scientific Information. He remains active in clinical care and teaching.

Each year, Graduate Student Research Day is held to provide young researchers the opportunity to showcase their research efforts with oral and poster presentations in Scott Hall. For more information about this event, please contact Carri Glide at cglide@med.wayne.edu or (313) 576-8313.