Sherman Harman, MD, PhD

Personal Info

My main research emphases during over 40 years as an independent investigator have been on effects of aging on hormone balance, especially endocrine systems involving hypothalamic/pituitary regulation (growth hormone, sex steroids, adrenal and thyroid axes) and effects of hormone treatments on the aging phenotype. I have been organizing, performing, and supervising human endocrine research since 1973 with clinical studies in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging as well as with de novo recruited populations. My research administrative experience includes acting Clinical Director of the National Institute on Aging, NIA, service as IRB Chair and (currently) R&D Committee Chair at the Phoenix VA Health Care System and coordinating Principal Investigator of the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), a national multi-center trial of hormone replacement in over 720 women. I also served as site PI for the multicenter study of testosterone effects on atherosclerosis in aging men (TEAAM). Both these latter studies featured assessments of hormone treatment effects on cardiovascular risk factors and atherosclerosis imaging outcomes and included cognitive assessments as secondary endpoints. As Chief of the Endocrine Division at the Phoenix VA Health Care Center for the past six years, I have become concerned regarding the prevalence and clinical sequelae of endocrine deficiencies in traumatic brain injured Veterans, initially manifest in our clinic as a high prevalence of unexplained hypogonadism in relatively young OEF and OIF combat Veterans. I have been working with other VA endocrinologists over the past 18 months to help develop a national VA Cooperative Study to examine this issue. I believe my training, experience, and interests qualify me to contribute significantly to this study, if and when it becomes a reality.