Endocrine Abstracts

Volume 9

British Thyroid Association Pitt–Rivers Lecture

Theo J Visser, Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract

Theo J Visser obtained his Masters degree in Organic Chemistry at the Technical University (Delft, The Netherlands) in 1972. Since 1973 he has been associated with the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), where he received his PhD in 1980, and was appointed professor in 1987. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA) in 1981-1982.

Dr Visser has a long-standing interest in the regulation of thyroid hormone bioactivity in health and disease. He has been a pioneer in the characterization of the different thyroid hormone-deiodinating enzymes (iodothyronine deiodinases) that catalyze the activation and/or inactivation of thyroid hormone at the tissue level. Also, he was among the first to demonstrate the importance of transporters for tissue uptake of thyroid hormone. Recently, his group identified an important thyroid hormone transporter (MCT8) and mutations therein in patients with severe X-linked psychomotor retardation and abnormal thyroid hormone levels. This syndrome represents a novel mechanism of thyroid hormone resistance due to a defect in cellular entry of thyroid hormone.

Dr Visser received the Organon Prize of the Dutch Society for Endocrinology in 1983 and the Harington-De Visscher Prize of the European Thyroid Association in 1991.