Lawrence S. Kirschner, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Clinician;
Medical Director, NIEHS Clinical Research Unit

Tel 984-287-3562
[email protected]

111 Tw Alexander Dr

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

Lawrence S. Kirschner, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Clinician in the Clinical Research Branch, and the Medical Director of the NIEHS Clinical Research Unit (CRU). He is a clinical endocrinologist with expertise in tumors of the adrenal and pituitary glands, and other diseases that affect the function of these organs. Kirschner also has extensive experience in the evaluation and management of individuals and families with genetic conditions associated with endocrine tumors.

As Medical Director of the CRU, he oversees all clinical research studies at NIEHS with the goal to understand how the environment, including both external and internal factors, affects human health. As part of this effort, Kirschner serves as co-Principal Investigator of the Personalized Environment and Genes Study (PEGS) — a research program to investigate how gene-environment interactions can influence disease risk, and to enhance disease prevention efforts. PEGS is a valuable scientific resource for both NIEHS researchers and other collaborators.

Kirschner’s basic research group seeks to understand the molecular basis of inherited endocrine tumors, and his team investigates signaling pathways associated with dysregulation of the Protein Kinase A system as in the Carney Complex (CNC), and metabolic effects of mitochondrial dysregulation as observed in the inherited pheochromocytoma-paraganglioma syndromes.

The major goals of the research are to:

• Assess how dysregulation of the Rac1 signaling pathway contributes to tissue-specific developmental dysregulation and to endocrine tumorigenesis.
• Characterize the metabolic dysregulation associated with mutation in each of the succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) subunits and how these gene-specific changes affect the clinical presentation of the disease.
• Determine how environmental exposures affect the penetrance of disease for carriers of SDHx gene mutations.

Relevance to the NIEHS mission

Through his research, Kirschner aims to increase understanding of how gene-environment interactions can influence disease risk. PEGS is critical in that effort because it examines disease risk using an unbiased, data-driven model. Also, his work related to SDH gene mutations will uncover environmental factors that can influence disease prevalence. The ultimate goal is to develop new models to predict tumor risk and guide prognosis in a disease-specific cohort.