Jay Skyler



Jay S. Skyler MD, MACP, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, & Psychology, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida.

Contact: [mailto:jskyler@miami.edu] ; Phone 305-243-6146

Address: Jay Samuel Skyler, MD, MACP, University of Miami Diabetes Research Institute, P.O. Box 016960 (D-110) Miami, Florida 33101-6960.

Jay S. Skyler, MD, MACP is currently a Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, & Psychology, in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida. He served as Director of that Division from 2000 to 2004. He is Associate Director for Academic Programs in the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami. He was also Program Director of the UM’s General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) from 2001 to 2006. He was chairman of the Planning Committee for the University’s new Clinical Research Institute, a 336,000 square foot facility which opened in 2006. He is Chairman of the NIH (NIDDK)-sponsored Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, a nationwide network conducting clinical trials to interdict type 1 diabetes.

A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Skyler is a graduate of Penn State University and Jefferson Medical College, and did his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Duke University Medical Center. He also was on the faculty at Duke, where he was Director of Diabetes & Nutrition Education and Medical Director of the Physician's Associate Program, and was named an Honorary Physician's Associate in recognition of distinguished teaching. He worked two years at the Hypertension-Endocrine Branch (Section on Biochemical Pharmacology) of the National Heart and Lung Institute, National Institutes of Health. He joined the University of Miami in 1976.

Dr. Skyler’s career in diabetes spans over four decades, beginning as a medical student in 1967. For 13 summers, he served as director of a diabetes summer camp, where he became recognized for using camp as a locus for training of medical and nursing students, house staff, and fellows. At the University of Miami, he initiated and for 10 years served as Director of the Diabetes Metabolic Unit. During his tenure as Director, that unit attained national and international prominence, being selected as the model diabetes unit to represent the United States at the Worldwide Diabetes Care Program held in conjunction with the 12th International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Congress in Madrid in 1985.

His research interests are in clinical aspects of diabetes, particularly improving the care of Type 1 diabetes through meticulous glycemic control, psychosocial and behavioral support, and immune intervention. He was Study Chairman for the nationwide multicenter Diabetes Prevention Trial for Type 1 Diabetes (DPT-1) and currently is Study Chairman of its successor Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet. He has long been interested in the complications of diabetes, and in the relationship between blood pressure and blood glucose. Dr. Skyler was a pioneer in the use of patient self-monitoring of blood glucose and in developing the concept of “Intensive Insulin Therapy.” He is widely acclaimed for his “algorithms” for patient adjustment of insulin doses. For these contributions, Dr. Skyler received the 1985 Achievement Award of the American Society of Contemporary Medicine & Surgery “for Distinguished Contributions to the Knowledge of Diabetes Mellitus”. He gave a plenary lecture and received the Plenary Medal at the 13th IDF Congress in Sydney in 1988, and gave a plenary lecture and received a Plenary Plaque at the 15th IDF Congress in Kobe in 1994.

Much of Dr. Skyler’s current research focus is in interdicting the type 1 diabetes disease process through immunoregulation. Beginning in the 1980s, he and his colleagues conducted some of the first research using cyclosporine as immune intervention and demonstrated that this resulted in sustained beta-cell function. Later, he designed and served as Study Chairman for the nationwide multicenter NIH-sponsored Diabetes Prevention Trial for Type 1 Diabetes (DPT-1) which examined the possible effects of parenteral and of oral insulin in delaying type 1 diabetes in subjects at increased risk of the disease. He currently is Study Chairman of its successor, the NIH Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet Clinical Trials Study Group. TrialNet is conducting a variety of intervention trials in both new-onset type 1 diabetes and in subjects at risk of the disease, as well as further defining the natural history of the disease and its pathophysiology.

Dr. Skyler has served the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in many capacities. He served a six year term on the ADA Board of Directors (1978-84), five times directed the ADA’s national postgraduate course, served on multiple ADA Committees and Task Forces, and was President of the Florida Affiliate. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the national ADA Board of Directors from 1989 through 1992, serving as Vice-President in 1989-90, President-Elect in 1990-91, and as 50th national President in 1991-92. He received the 1992 Banting Medal for Service to ADA.

Skyler represented ADA on the Council of Subspecialty Societies (CSS) of the American College of Physicians (ACP) for six years, and was Chair of the CSS for 1996-1999 and a member of the ACP Board of Regents those three years. He also was Chair of ACP’s Research Center Advisory Committee and a member of ACP’s Oversight Group monitoring the Subspecialist/Generalist Interface. He served on the Finance Committee of the ACP-ASIM Foundation. In recognition of his many contributions to medicine, he has been named a Master of the American College of Physicians (MACP), the highest level of Fellowship attained by very few.

As Chairman of the ADA Committee on Camps, Skyler directed the first program establishing standards for diabetes summer camps. He has been instrumental in starting several of ADA’s publications. He was founding Editor-in-Chief of the ADA professional journal, Diabetes Care, serving five years in that position (1978-1982), during which time Diabetes Care attained the highest circulation of any journal in the field of Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism, a position it still holds. Then, during his tenure as Chairman of the Committee on Publications, ADA launched both Diabetes '83 and Clinical Diabetes. During his Presidency, ADA decided to launch Diabetes Reviews. He was the second Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Reviews during 1998 and 1999, and served as Associate Editor for Reviews of Diabetes Care in 2000 and 2001 after Diabetes Reviews was merged into Diabetes Care.

Dr. Skyler completed a six year term (1986-1991) as a member of the Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Subspecialty Examining Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), and then served as first Chairman of the first ABIM Re-Certification Committee for Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism (1992-95). He was President of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (SSCI) for 1992-93. He was a Vice-President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) (1994-2000) and was a member of the IDF Executive Board for nine years (1991-2000). He was a member of the founding Executive Committee of the International Diabetes Immunotherapy Group (IDIG), and was IDIG President 1999-2001. He was a member of the Council of the Immunology of Diabetes Society (IDS) during 1999-2001.

Dr. Skyler has been author, editor, or co-editor of 19 books or monographs, and has written over 350 articles, book chapters, or editorials. He also has edited 12 special journal symposia. He has been on the editorial boards of several journals, including the American Journal of Medicine; American Journal of Medical Sciences; Diabetes Care; Diabetic Medicine; Diabetes Research & Clinical Practice; Diabetes/Metabolism Reviews; Diabetes, Nutrition, & Metabolism; Clinical Diabetes; Diabetes Spectrum; The Endocrinologist; Journal of Diabetes & Its Complications; Diabetes, Metabolism, and Obesity; Diabetes Reviews; Psychosomatic Medicine; and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Currently, he is Scientific Editor of International Diabetes Monitor (of which he was founding Scientific Editor), Associate Editor of Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, and Advisory Editor of Diabetologia, a publication of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. He is a regular reviewer for many journals, including JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Skyler is a scientific advisor to the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries, as a member or chair of their Medical Scientific Advisory Board. He has chaired advisory committees for Alinea, Amylin, Aventis, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Eli Lilly, Glaxo-Wellcome, Kos, Lipha, MannKind, MiniMed, Novartis, Novo-Nordisk, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and Wyeth. He was a Founder and on the Board of Directors of Mega Technologies, Inc., which became a part of Biogenix Corporation/Exact Science, Inc., which was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 1990. He was on the Board of Directors of MiniMed Inc. (a NASDAQ listed company), until that company was acquired by Medtronic in 2001. Since 1999, he has been on the Board of Directors of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ – AMLN), which in 2005 had two first-in-class products approved – Symlin, the first amylin agonist, and Byetta, the first incretin mimetic. Since 2002, he has been on the Board of Directors of DexCom, Inc., which had a successful IPO in April 2005 to become a NASDAQ listed company – DXCM, and which had its STS Continuous Glucose Sensor approved in 2006.