Endocrine Society’s 2022 Laureate Award

Terry J. Smith, M.D., the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Emeritus and Professor of Internal Medicine, is one of 13 endocrinologists to earn the Endocrine Society’s 2022 Laureate Award. Dr. Smith received the Gerald D. Aurbach Award for Outstanding Translational Research, one of the society’s top honors.

Dr. Smith grew interested in Graves’ disease and thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy in medical school. More than three decades later, he and his team’s work led to the development of teprotumumab—the first FDA-approved drug to treat thyroid eye disease. Prior to the discovery, steroids were the only medical—albeit nonspecific—treatment option for the condition. Othewise, surgery would be required. “Those earlier and available treatments were not disease-modifying, because they didn’t get at the heart of the disease,” he said. Smith’s lab continues to dig into the mechanisms of the disease and the actions of the medication to determine if teprotumumab or a similar drug may be applicable for other immune diseases.