John D. Baxter
Houston Methodist Research Institute
June 11, 1940 - October 6, 2011
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Scientific Discipline: Medical Physiology and Metabolism Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2003)
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John Baxter’s endocrinology research epitomized translational science—bringing bench discoveries to clinical medicine through collaboration with industry. Work in his laboratory revealed important details about the underlying genetics, molecular structure, and functional domains of hormones and their receptors, most notably growth hormone and thyroid hormone. Using these discoveries, Baxter launched a string of companies that developed and began testing medications for people who suffer from metabolic diseases.
Baxter earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Kentucky and his medical degree from Yale in 1966. He completed a fellowship in endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1969.
Baxter remained on the faculty at UCSF for more than thirty-five years. During this time, he also founded California Biotechnology, a company that developed peptide hormones for heart failure and wound healing; SciClone Pharmaceuticals, a company that developed hepatitis B/C therapeutics; and Calhoun Vision, which developed implantable remodellable lenses for treatment of poor vision. In 2008, Baxter joined The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Texas, where he fulfilled numerous important leadership roles.
Baxter was a president of The Endocrine Society, recipient of the Koch Award of The Endocrine Society, recipient of the Ingbar Award from the American Thyroid Association, and the Outstanding Investigator Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
