Board of Medical Advisors

Nancy Alston, MD

Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID

BACKGROUND: Dr. Alston is a dedicated advocate for her student patients. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Utah. She practiced internal medicine in San Jose, California for 17 years prior to coming to Idaho.

Nancy also has a practice with ISU Family Practice Residency Program.

Barry F. Bennett, MD

Southeast Idaho Family Practice, Idaho Falls, ID

BACKGROUND: Dr. Bennett graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine and did his residency in Family Medicine through the US Army. He is the Past President of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians; a member of the Board of Directors for Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls; a delegate for Idaho to The American Academy of Family Physicians; the Past President of the Idaho Falls Medical Society. He is an Associate Faculty of The University of Utah School of Medicine and member of the Admissions Committee for The University of Utah School of Medicine. He also serves a member of the Voluntary Quality Review Committee for The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

John Bilezikian, MD

College of Physicians and Surgeons,Columbia University,New York, NY

BACKGROUND: Dr. Bilezikian, the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pharmacology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University is Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Director of the Metabolic Bone Diseases Program at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Bilezikian received his undergraduate training at Harvard College and his medical training at the College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed four years of house staff training (internship, residency and Chief Residency) on the Medical Service at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Bilezikian received his training in Metabolic Bone Diseases and in Endocrinology at the NIH in the Mineral Metabolism Branch under the tutelage of Dr. Gerald Aurbach. Dr. Bilezikian belongs to a number of professional societies including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, of which he served as President, 1995-1996 and the International Society of Clinical Densitometry, of which he served as President, 1999-2001. He is a member of the Endocrine Society, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the American College of Endocrinology that has designated him Master. He is Chair of the Endocrine Fellows Foundation. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2000-2004). His books include Editor-in-Chief of The Parathyroids (1994, 2001), and co-editor of The Aging Skeleton (1999), Dynamics of Bone and Cartilage Metabolism (1999, 2006), and Principles of Bone Biology (1996, 2002, 2008). He has been on numerous panels, including serving as Chair of the NIH Consensus Development Panel on Optimal Calcium Intake (1994) and Co-chair of the last two NIH Workshops on Primary Hyperparathyroidism (2002, 2008). He is a major national and international spokesperson for the field of metabolic bone diseases. Dr. Bilezikian's major research interests are related to the clinical investigation of metabolic bone diseases, particularly osteoporosis and primary hyperparathyroidism. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Physician Award of the Endocrine Society, the Frederic C. Bartter Award of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research for Excellence in Clinical Research, the John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award of the Houston Academy of Medicine, the First Annual Global Leadership Award of the International Society of Clinical Densitometry, and Lifetime Achievement Awards of the Armenian American Medical Society of California and the Armenian American Health Professionals Organization. His publications, which number over 550, speak to his active original investigative initiatives as well as his demand as an author of many reference sources of endocrinology and metabolic bone diseases.

Maria Lusia Brandi, MD

University of Florence, Florence, Italy

BACKGROUND: Coming soon!

Bart L. Clarke, MD

Mayo Clinic Rochester, Rochester, MN

BACKGROUND: Bart L. Clarke, M.D. is Consultant and Chair of the Metabolic Bone Disease Core Group in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, and Nutrition at the Mayo Clinic, and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. He obtained his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles Geffen School of Medicine in 1986. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 1989, and his fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 1992. He completed further fellowship training in bone and mineral metabolism under the guidance of Drs. Lorraine A. Fitzpatrick and B. Lawrence Riggs at the Mayo Clinic in 1994, and was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine from 1994-1997. He assumed his current position at the Mayo Clinic in 1997. His research interests include metabolic bone diseases, including postmenopausal osteoporosis, primary hyperparathyroidism, and hypoparathyroidism. He is a member of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, The Endocrine Society, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and the American College of Physicians. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, and a current Chair of the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board.

Harald Jüppner, MD

Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

BACKGROUND: Dr. Jüppner¹s research focuses on the regulation of mineral ion homeostasis and bone metabolism. His primary interest has been the PTH/PTHrP receptor and understanding its role in bone, kidney and cartilage biology. He is, furthermore, interested in parathyroid hormone (PTH) and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), particularly their role in patients with phosphate-wasting disorders and chronic kidney disease. In recent years, molecular genetic studies have been the main focus of his research. His laboratory identified the molecular defect of several inherited disorders, including pseudohypoparathyroidism type Ib, infantile cortical hyperostosis, and some hypophosphatemic disorders. To explore the molecular basis of these and other inherited human disorders, he has collaborated with a large number of investigators and clinicians.

Aliya Khan, MD

Oakville Bone Center, Oakville, Ontario Canada

BACKGROUND: Coming soon!

Michael A. Levine, MD

Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, Philadelphia, PA

BACKGROUND: Dr. Levine spent 20 years at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine specializing in bone diseases, starting with the aging population before turning his attention to pediatrics.

Dr. Levine graduated with distinction from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia in 1976. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins before serving as clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health in a combined endocrinology and genetics program. He returned to Johns Hopkins in 1982 as assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, eventually heading the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. Dr. Levine has earned numerous awards, including the recent ACE Distinction in Clinical Endocrinology Award from the American College of Endocrinology.

Michael Mannstadt, MD

Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

BACKGROUND: Dr. Mannstadt is a clinical endocrinologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston and his endocrine practice focuses on diseases affecting bone metabolism and mineral ion homeostasis. He is also working as physician-scientist in the laboratory, where his research is focused on studying the regulation of parathyroid hormone (PTH), the major regulator of calcium homeostasis, by the parathyroid glands. Through the identification of novel disease-causing mutations in the parathyroid-specific transcription factor GCMB in patients with hypoparathyroidism, he and his colleagues have identified new tools to study further parathyroid gland development and function.

John T. Potts, Jr.

Neuroendocrine Clinical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

BACKGROUND: Dr. John T. Potts is the Distinguished Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School. After medical training at the University of Pennsylvania, he did his internship and residency at the MGH from 1957 to 1959, and then went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to work with Nobel Laureate Christian Anfinsen in protein chemistry. Dr. Potts remained at the NIH from 1959 to 1968, when he returned to the MGH as Chief of the Endocrine Unit. He served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief from 1981 to 1996, and as Director of Research from 1995 to 2004. In his role as Director of Research, Dr. Potts was responsible for developing policies and strategies for preserving and strengthening the extensive scientific research effort at the MGH, an endeavor which he continues to the present. The author or co-author of over 500 scientific publications, Dr. Potts' accomplishments have been recognized with a series of honors, including the Fred Conrad Koch Award of the Endocrine Society, as well as election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds active and honorary memberships in numerous scientific and professional organizations.

Daniel Ruan, MD

Boston, MA

BACKGROUND: Coming soon!

Mishaela Rubin, MD

College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University, New York, NY

BACKGROUND: Dr. Mishaela Rubin graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1995. She completed her medical training and endocrinology fellowship in 1998 and 2003, respectively, at Columbia University. She also completed a Masters in Biostatistics at Columbia University. Her specialty is in Metabolic Bone Diseases. Specifically, her research is focused on hypoparathyroidism and PTH treatment. She is funded by two NIH grants to study different aspects of hypoparathyroidism.

Dolores Shoback, MD

University of California – San Francisco VA Medical Ctr., San Francisco, CA

BACKGROUND: Dr. Dolores Shoback sees general endocrine patients with an emphasis on metabolic bone disease and osteoporosis. She is board certified in internal medicine with a subspecialty in endocrinology and metabolism. A professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Training Program in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, her research interests are metabolic bone disease, the calcium sensing receptor and parathyroid hormone. Shoback completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She went on to Johns Hopkins University for medical school and performed a residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and then completed a fellowship in endocrinology at Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston.