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Kevin Jon Williams, MD

Section Chief, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

Professor, Medicine

Telephone:  215-707-4746

FAX: 215-707-5599

Email:  kjwilliams@temple.edu

Department of Medicine, Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1980

 

Residency,  Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL, 1983

 

Fellowship, Clinical Endocrinology, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT, 1984

 

Fellowship, Metabolism, Columbia University, New York City, NY, 1985

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• Lipid and lipoprotein abnormalities, particularly in insulin resistence and type 2 diabetes
• Cause, prevention and reversal of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

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An avid researcher with many published works to his credit, Dr. Williams has performed groundbreaking studies in the area of lipoproteins and atherosclerosis. He is the principal investigator on several NIH-funded projects and holds 11 patents issued since 1998. Dr. Williams has served as an ad hoc reviewer for many journals, and is currently a consulting editor for the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (an American Heart Association journal) and Rambam (Maimonides) Medical Journal.

His research in atherosclerosis and diabetes encompasses the following areas:

• Widely accepted work on the origin of atherosclerosis, focusing on the retention of LDL and related lipoproteins within arterial walls and the subsequent development of plaque, plaque ruptures and clot formation. Williams’s work has provided a basis for a new unity among basic research, epidemiologic, pharmacologic and clinical approaches to cardiovascular disease, the leading killer worldwide.

• The inability of the liver in patients with diabetes to rapidly and safely dispose of postprandial triglyceride-rich remnant lipoproteins. The result is diabetic dyslipidemia, a substantial factor in elevating atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Williams’s laboratory is currently exploring corrective strategies.
  

• The essential, but previously unsuspected, role that particular proteins play in the insulin-signaling cascade. The Williams laboratory reported his initial, novel findings in June 2009 at the American Diabetes Association’s annual scientific sessions.

Explaining his research focus, Williams says, “Atherosclerosis kills about 50 percent of the people living in Western societies, and about 80 percent of people with diabetes will suffer from cardiovascular events. As more of the world adopts Western lifestyles, these problems are growing in both the U.S. and worldwide, and both of these common diseases hit the population Temple serves particularly hard.”

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Internal Medicine

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• Fellow, Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis & Vascular Biology of the American Heart Association
• Past-president and member of the New York Lipid and Vascular Biology Research Club
• Member, Philadelphia Lipid Research Club

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Recent Medically Related Publications, Obtained from PubMed (Click on PubMed ID to view abstract)

18830418. Williams KJ, Molecular processes that handle -- and mishandle -- dietary lipids. J Clin Invest 118:10(3247-59)2008 Oct

18669882. Devlin CM, Leventhal AR, Kuriakose G, Schuchman EH, Williams KJ, Tabas I, Acid sphingomyelinase promotes lipoprotein retention within early atheromata and accelerates lesion progression. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 28:10(1723-30)2008 Oct

18211700. Smith JA, Wang FX, Zhang H, Wu KJ, Williams KJ, Daniel R, Evidence that the Nijmegen breakage syndrome protein, an early sensor of double-strand DNA breaks (DSB), is involved in HIV-1 post-integration repair by recruiting the ataxia telangiectasia-mutated kinase in a process similar to, but distinct from, cellular DSB repair. Virol J 5:(11)2008 Jan 22

17938300. Tabas I, Williams KJ, Borén J, Subendothelial lipoprotein retention as the initiating process in atherosclerosis: update and therapeutic implications. Circulation 116:16(1832-44)2007 Oct 16

17158353. Liu ML, Reilly MP, Casasanto P, McKenzie SE, Williams KJ, Cholesterol enrichment of human monocyte/macrophages induces surface exposure of phosphatidylserine and the release of biologically-active tissue factor-positive microvesicles. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 27:2(430-5)2007 Feb

16961586. Reilly MP, Taylor SM, Franklin C, Sachais BS, Cines DB, Williams KJ, McKenzie SE, Prothrombotic factors enhance heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis in vivo in a mouse model. J Thromb Haemost 4:12(2687-94)2006 Dec

15793251. Williams KJ, Liu ML, Zhu Y, Xu X, Davidson WR, McCue P, Sharma K, Loss of heparan N-sulfotransferase in diabetic liver: role of angiotensin II. Diabetes 54:4(1116-22)2005 Apr

15567441. Argyris EG, Kulkosky J, Meyer ME, Xu Y, Mukhtar M, Pomerantz RJ, Williams KJ, The perlecan heparan sulfate proteoglycan mediates cellular uptake of HIV-1 Tat through a pathway responsible for biological activity. Virology 330:2(481-6)2004 Dec 20

14581551. Argyris EG, Acheampong E, Nunnari G, Mukhtar M, Williams KJ, Pomerantz RJ, Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 enters primary human brain microvascular endothelial cells by a mechanism involving cell surface proteoglycans independent of lipid rafts. J Virol 77:22(12140-51)2003 Nov

11561166. Williams KJ, Arterial wall chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans: diverse molecules with distinct roles in lipoprotein retention and atherogenesis. Curr Opin Lipidol 12:5(477-87)2001 Oct

11450260. Williams KJ, Interactions of lipoproteins with proteoglycans. Methods Mol Biol 171:(457-77)2001

11042114. Fuki IV, Meyer ME, Williams KJ, Transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains of syndecan mediate a multi-step endocytic pathway involving detergent-insoluble membrane rafts. Biochem J 351 Pt 3:(607-12)2000 Nov 1

11025403. Shi Y, Niculescu R, Wang D, Ormont M, Magno M, San Antonio JD, Williams KJ, Zalewski A, Myofibroblast involvement in glycosaminoglycan synthesis and lipid retention during coronary repair. J Vasc Res 37:5(399-407)2000 Sep-Oct

10942425. Marathe S, Miranda SR, Devlin C, Johns A, Kuriakose G, Williams KJ, Schuchman EH, Tabas I, Creation of a mouse model for non-neurological (type B) Niemann-Pick disease by stable, low level expression of lysosomal sphingomyelinase in the absence of secretory sphingomyelinase: relationship between brain intra-lysosomal enzyme activity and central nervous system function. Hum Mol Genet 9:13(1967-76)2000 Aug 12

10818109. Fuki IV, Iozzo RV, Williams KJ, Perlecan heparan sulfate proteoglycan: a novel receptor that mediates a distinct pathway for ligand catabolism. J Biol Chem 275:33(25742-50)2000 Aug 18

10764669. Williams KJ, Scalia R, Mazany KD, Rodrigueza WV, Lefer AM, Rapid restoration of normal endothelial functions in genetically hyperlipidemic mice by a synthetic mediator of reverse lipid transport. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 20:4(1033-9)2000 Apr

10559007. Marathe S, Kuriakose G, Williams KJ, Tabas I, Sphingomyelinase, an enzyme implicated in atherogenesis, is present in atherosclerotic lesions and binds to specific components of the subendothelial extracellular matrix. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 19:11(2648-58)1999 Nov

9812202. Williams KJ, Tabas I, The response-to-retention hypothesis of atherogenesis reinforced. Curr Opin Lipidol 9:5(471-4)1998 Oct

9660788. Schissel SL, Keesler GA, Schuchman EH, Williams KJ, Tabas I, The cellular trafficking and zinc dependence of secretory and lysosomal sphingomyelinase, two products of the acid sphingomyelinase gene. J Biol Chem 273:29(18250-9)1998 Jul 17

9639683. Mazany KD, Peng T, Watson CE, Tabas I, Williams KJ, Human chondroitin 6-sulfotransferase: cloning, gene structure, and chromosomal localization. Biochim Biophys Acta 1407:1(92-7)1998 Jul 1

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