Jose Florez, M.D., Ph.D.

Jose C. Florez, M.D., Ph.D., is the physician-in-chief and chair of the Department of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he is active in the Program in Medical and Population Genetics and serves as senior clinical advisor to the Broad Diabetes Initiative. As the department chair at MGH, he oversees 10 clinical divisions, seven research units/centers, and 19 training programs, comprising over 1,000 faculty members, 900 trainees (clinical fellows, research fellows, and medical residents), and 100 medical practices.

Prior to becoming chair of the department at MGH, Florez was chief of the endocrine division and the diabetes unit. Through his research career, he and his team have contributed to the conduct and analysis of high-throughput genomic studies in type 2 diabetes and related traits in multiple international consortia. He is particularly interested in advancing precision medicine and pharmacogenetics as applied to diabetes. He has led the genetic initiatives of the NIH-funded Diabetes Prevention Program and the Glycemia Reduction Approaches in Diabetes—A Comparative Effectiveness (GRADE) clinical trial, and he designed the Study to Understand the Genetics of the Acute Response to Metformin and Glipizide in Humans (SUGAR-MGH). He is clinically active in the MGH Down Syndrome Program, the Endocrine inpatient consult service, and the Bigelow medical service. He is an inducted member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and the recipient of the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. In 2019, he received the Father of the Year Award from the American Diabetes Association.

Florez received his B.A./M.S. from Northwestern University, where he remained to obtain his M.D./Ph.D. in the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his medical residency and a fellowship in diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at MGH.