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Dr. Swerdloff is the Director of the Harbor-UCLA Reproductive Program - World Health Organization Collaborative Center for Reproduction, NIH Contraceptive Trials Center Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, and Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. His career in endocrinology/andrology has been characterized by scientific achievements in endocrinology, leadership in professional societies and mentorship of numerous outstanding trainees. Dr. Swerdloff has published over 500 papers, trained over 130 endocrinologists and andrologists, many of whom are current leaders in the field, and served many leadership roles in the Society, and national and international scientific organizations.
Dr. Swerdloff’s research has covered the entire spectrum of basic, translational and clinical andrology. His research career began at the National Institute of Aging, NIH where he worked under the guidance of Rueben Andres on glucose metabolism. Excited by the potential created by new assay tools being developed by a new generation of reproductive scientists, his career was redirected to reproductive biology. His studies on reproductive endocrinology, including pubertal development, male contraception, and androgen physiology have been published in the highest quality journals, in over 300 peer-reviewed papers, 130 book chapters and a large number of reviews, editorials, commentaries and bulletins and edited 9 books. He has chaired and served many guideline committees for societies in a number of disciplines. He is both a basic scientist, translational and clinical investigator. Studies by his laboratory have contributed to our understanding of the neuroendocrine regulation of GnRH secretion, androgen action, and hormone modeling. His early research in the late 1960s and 70s, involved the metabolic effects of steroids, including progesterone and estradiol, and their differential feedback regulation of the gonadotrophin hormones in both the male and female and in both laboratory and clinical investigations. During this period, under the mentorship and later partnership with William Odell, Dr, Swerdloff and his colleagues applied the newly developed radio-immunoassays for gonadotropins and sex steroids to normal reproductive physiology and disease states. Pioneering studies by this group, on the measurement of circulating concentrations of LH and FSH, led to our current understanding of the developmental changes during normal and abnormal puberty, and the normal menstrual cycle. He has played a key role in the development of almost all of the existing androgen formulations. Dr. Swerdloff’s laboratory published the first studies describing the kinetics of testosterone esters, and the mechanistic basis of their extended duration of action. His interest in nutritional influences on sexual maturation led to laboratory studies on the role of specific amino acids and obesity on reproductive function. These underpinned his clinical interests in diabetes, nutrition, obesity and his broad involvement in many aspects of male reproductive dysfunction, including Klinefelter’s Syndrome, aging, neurocognitive dysfunction, infertility and impotence. Dr Swerdloff is one of the leaders in the long delayed promise of developing a safe, effective and reversible male contraceptive. Using rodent, non-human primate, and human experimental models, his research has provided important insights into the molecular regulation of spermatogenesis and recently his laboratory uncovered novel mechanisms by which hormonal contraceptives and environmental factors inhibit spermatogenesis. More recently he has embarked on studies on aging and testicular dysfunction. He is working with a team of investigators studying late onset hypogonadism and the benefit/risk of testosterone interventional therapy on cognition, vitality, frailty, sexuality, and CV function in hypogonadal older men.
Dr. Swerdloff has played many leadership roles in endocrinology during his career. He served as President of the American Society of Andrology. He was the President of the Western Society of Clinical Investigation, an Editor of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. He has also been a member of numerous NIH expert panels; including the Chair of the Andropause Consensus Panel and a member of the Hypogonadism Guidelines Committee of the Endocrine Society. He served on the Public Affairs, Education, National Meeting Arrangement and the Program Committees of the Endocrine Society. He has served on study sections and “Blue Ribbon” committees for the NIH.
Dr. Swerdloff’s counsel is sought by international and government funding agencies, pharmaceutical companies, scientific journals, scientific societies and in courts of law. As a member of the WHO Male Task Force for the Regulation of Male Fertility, he played an important role in guiding the design of WHO efficacy trials of androgens as male contraceptives and providing further refinements in multiple other studies at Harbor-UCLA.
Recognized as a teacher and clinician of the highest distinction, Dr. Swerdloff’s broad-based approach to important andrology topics has attracted a constantly changing team of US and overseas colleagues and fellows. The present group anchored by his equally and independently renowned wife and scientific partner, Christina Wang has many ongoing basic and clinical projects in 3 continents. Through these collaborative activities, he has uniquely demonstrated the very best aspects of effective mentoring. Dr. Swerdloff’s clinical acumen and compassion were acknowledged by the 2000-2001 Sherman Mellinkoff Award, an annual award reserved for the most outstanding member of faculty at UCLA, this award recognized his dedication to science, the art of medicine and outstanding doctor-patient relations. He was consistently ranked as one of the best doctors in America, and has been regularly chosen by his peers as a “Top Doctor in America.”
Few individuals in andrology have had a greater impact in male reproduction over such as long period of time as Dr. Swerdloff. The American Society of Andrology honored him as the Distinguished Andrologist in 2004 and The Endocrine Society as the Distinguished Educator in 2008.
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Ronald S. Swerdloff, MD, Harbor UCLA Med Ctr