Former Head

Endocrinology & Metabolism

Hadassah University Hospital,

91120 Jerusalem

Office tel: +972 2 642 07 40 or - 677 67 88

Fax: +972 2 642 07 40

Home tel: +972 2 566 58 54

Mobile: Local: 050 787 44 46

International: +33 6 50 76 48 52

MD 1960, University of Istanbul Medical School.

MD 1964, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. PhD 1967, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.  Dhc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, 2002.

Training in Internal Medicine and in Endocrinology at the Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm. Assoc. Director of the Department of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Karolinska Hospital, 1970-77.

Invited Professor, University of Geneva Medical School, 1973-75. Professor of Endocrinology at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, 1977-2003. Chairman, Department of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Hadassah University Hospital, 1977-2001.

Professor Emeritus, 2003. 

Major Honors & Awards

* Oskar Minkowski Award of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, 1974.

* President of the Scandinavian Society for Diabetes Research, 1975-1977.

* E.F.F. Copp Memorial Lecturer, 1984.

* Co-chairman, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Medical Advisory Council, 1984-1990.

* Öker Memorial Lecturer, 1987 and 1996.

* President of the Israel Endocrine Society, 1996-2000.

* Member of the Medical Science Review Committee, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International, 1996-1999.

* Maurice Dérot Award of the French Diabetes Association, 1997.

* Life Membership, Scientific Committee, Journées de Diabétologie de l’Hôtel-Dieu,1997.

* Mary Jane Kugel Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International, 1999.

* Elkeles Prize for Outstanding Scientist in the Field of Medicine, Israel, 2000.

* Doctor honoris causa, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, 2002.

* Honorary Member, European Association for the Study of Diabetes, 2006,

* Life Achievement Award in Health Sciences (Tbitak) by the Turkish Republic, 2006.

Research Interests

Since the early 1960's the research interests have been in the field of diabetes, specifically on the regulation of insulin production in normal and diabetic beta-cells, on the molecular control of glucose transport, and more recently on several aspects of the molecular control of insulin gene expression. Since several years these studies are performed in close collaboration with coworkers of the Department. For details, see R. Nesher, N. Kaiser, D. Melloul, G. Leibowitz.

Early Key Papers and Recent Publications

Cerasi, E. & Luft, R.: Plasma insulin response to sustained hyperglycaemia induced by glucose infusion in human subjects. Lancet ii: 1359-61, 1963.

Cerasi, E. & Luft, R.:  The plasma insulin response to glucose infusion in healthy subjects and in diabetes mellitus.  Acta Endocr. (Kbh.) 55: 278-304, 1967.

Cerasi, E. & Luft, R.:  Insulin response to glucose infusion in diabetic and non diabetic monozygotic twin pairs.  Genetic control of insulin response?  Acta Endocr. (Kbh.) 55: 330-45, 1967.

Cerasi, E. & Luft. R.: "What is inherited - what is added" hypothesis for the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus.  Diabetes 16: 615-27, 1967.

Cerasi, E., Efendic, S. & Luft, R.: Role of adrenergic receptors in glucose-induced insulin secretion in man. Lancet ii: 301-2, 1969.

Cerasi, E. & Luft, R.: Diabetes mellitus - a disorder of cellular information transmission? In: Nobel Symposium 13: Pathogenesis of Diabetes Mellitus. E. Cerasi, & R. Luft, Eds. Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, 1970, p. 349.

Cerasi, E., Luft, R. & Efendic, S.: Decreased sensitivity of the pancreatic beta-cells to glucose in prediabetic and diabetic subjects. A glucose dose-response study. Diabetes 21: 224-34, 1972.

Cerasi, E., Efendic, S & Luft, R.: Dose-response relationship of plasma insulin and blood glucose levels during oral glucose loads in prediabetic and diabetic subjects. Lancet i: 794-7, 1973.

Cerasi, E., Fick, G. & Rudemo, M.: A mathematical model for the glucose induced insulin release in man. Europ. J. Clin. Invest. 4: 267-78, 1974.

Grill, V. & Cerasi, E.: Stimulation by D-glucose of 3H cyclic 3',5'-adenosine monophosphate accumulation and insulin release in isolated pancreatic islets of the rat. J. Biol. Chem. 249: 4196-201, 1974.

Cerasi, E.: Potentiation of insulin release by glucose in man. I. Quantitative analysis of the enhancement of glucose-induced insulin secretion by pretreatment with glucose in normal subjects. Acta Endocr. (Kbh.) 79: 483-501, 1975.

Cerasi, E.: Potentiation of insulin release by glucose in man. III. Different sensitivities of the pancreas to the initiating and the potentiating actions of glucose in diabetic and prediabetic subjects. Acta Endocr. (Kbh.) 79: 511-34, 1975.

Rabinovitch, A., Grill, V., Renold, A.E. & Cerasi, E.: Insulin release and cyclic AMP accumulation in response to glucose in pancreatic islets of fed and starved rats. J. Clin. Invest. 58: 1209-16, 1976.

Grill, V., Adamson, U. & Cerasi, E.: Immediate and time-dependent effects of glucose on insulin release from rat pancreatic tissue; evidence for different mechanisms of action.  J. Clin. Invest. 61: 1034-43, 1978.

Grill, V., Adamson, U., Rundfeldt, M., Andersson, S. & Cerasi, E.: Glucose memory of pancreatic B and A2 cells: evidence for common time-dependent actions of glucose on insulin and glucagon secretion in the perfused rat pancreas. J. Clin. Invest. 64: 700-7, 1979.

Iselius, L., Lindsten, J., Morton, N.E., Efendic, S., Cerasi, E., Haegermark, A. & Luft, R.: Genetic regulation of the kinetics of glucose-induced insulin release in man - Studies in families with diabetic and non-diabetic probands. Clin. Genet. 28: 8-15, 1985.

Sasson, S., & Cerasi, E.:  Substrate regulation of the glucose transport system in rat skeletal muscle: Characterization and kinetic analysis in isolated soleus muscle and skeletal muscle cells in culture. J. Biol. Chem., 261: 16827-33, 1986.

Nesher, R., Della Casa, L., Litvin, Y., Sinai, J., Del Rio, G., Pevsner, B., Wax, Y., & Cerasi, E.:  Insulin deficiency and insulin resistance in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes. Quantitative contributions of pancreatic and peripheral responses to glucose homeostasis. Eur. J. Clin. Invest. 17: 266-74, 1987.

Sasson, S., Edelson, D. & Cerasi, E.: In vitro autoregulation of glucose utilization in the rat soleus muscle. Diabetes, 36: 1041-6, 1987.

Nesher, R. & Cerasi, E.: Biphasic insulin release as the expression of combined inhibitory and potentiating effects of glucose. Endocrinology, 121: 1017-24, 1987.

Wertheimer, E., Sasson, S., Cerasi, E. & Ben-Neriah, Y.: The ubiquitous glucose transporter GLUT-1 belongs to the glucose-regulated protein family of stress-inducible proteins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88: 2525-9, 1991.

Kaiser, N., Corcos, A.P., Sarel, I. & Cerasi, E.: Monolayer culture of adult rat pancreatic islets on extracellular matrix: modulation of B-cell function by chronic exposure to high glucose. Endocrinology, 129: 2067-76, 1991.

Greco-Perotto, R., Wertheimer, E., Jeanrenaud, B., Cerasi, E. & Sasson, S.: Glucose regulates its transport in L8 myocytes by modulating cellular trafficking of the transporter GLUT-1. Biochem. J. 286: 157-63, 1992.

Melloul, D., Ben-Neriah, Y. & Cerasi, E.: Glucose modulates the binding of an islet specific factor to a conserved sequence within the rat I and the human insulin promoters. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90: 3865-9, 1993.

Gross, D.J., Leibowitz, G., Cerasi, E. & Kaiser, N.: Increased susceptibility of islets from diabetes-prone Psammomys obesus to the deleterious effects of chronic glucose exposure. Endocrinology, 137: 5610-5615, 1996.

Marshak, S., Totary, H., Cerasi, E. & Melloul, D.: Purification of the ß-cell glucose-sensitive factor which transactivates the insulin gene differentially in normal and transformed islet cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 96: 15057-15062, 1996.

Sasson, S., Kaiser, N., Dan-Goor, M., Oron, R., Koren, S., Wertheimer, E., Unluhizarci, K. & Cerasi, E.: Substrate autoregulation of glucose transport: Hexose-6-phosphate mediates cellular distribution of glucose transporters. Diabetologia, 40: 30-39, 1997.

Yedovitzky, M., Mochly-Rosen, D., Johnson, J.A., Gray, M.O., Ron, D., Abramovitch, E., Cerasi, E. & Nesher, R.: Translocation inhibitors define specificity of protein kinase C isoenzymes in pancreatic ß-cells. J. Biol. Chem., 272: 1417-1420, 1997.

Ilkova, H., Glaser, B., Tunçkale, A., Bagriaçik, N. & Cerasi, E.: Induction of long-term glycemic control in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients by transient intensive insulin treatment. Diabetes Care, 20: 1353-1356, 1997.

Nesher, R., Gross, D.J., Cerasi, E. & Kaiser, N.: Interactions between genetic and dietary factors determining ß-cell function in Psammomys obesus, an animal model of NIDDM. Diabetes 48: 731-737, 1999.

Donath, M.Y., Gross, D.J., Cerasi, E. & Kaiser, N.: Hyperglycemia-induced ß-cell apoptosis in pancreatic islets of Psammomys obesus during development of diabetes. Diabetes 48: 738-744, 1999.

Marshak, S., Leibowitz, G., Bertuzzi, F., Socci, C., Kaiser, N., Gross, D.J., Cerasi, E. & Melloul, D.: Impaired ß-cell functions induced by chronic exposure of cultured human pancreatic islets to high glucose. Diabetes 48: 1230-1236, 1999.

Ben-Shushan, E., Cerasi, E. & Melloul, D.: Regulation of the insulin gene by glucose: Stimulation of trans-activation potency of human PDX-1 N-terminal domain. DNA Cell Biol 18: 471-479, 1999.

Marshak, S., Ben-Shushan, E., Shoskes, M., Havin, L., Cerasi, E. & Melloul, D.: Functional conservation of regulatory elements in the PDX-1 gene: PDX-1 and HNF3ß transcription factors mediate ß-cell specific expression. Mol Cell Biol 20: 7583-7590, 2000.

Nesher, R., Warwar, N., Khan, A., Efendic, S., Cerasi, E. & Kaiser, N.: Defective stimulus-secretion coupling in islets of Psammomys obesus, an animal model for type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 50: 308-314, 2001.

Ben-Shushan, E., Marshak, S., Shoskes, M., Cerasi, E. & Melloul, D.: A pancreatic ß-cell-specific enhancer in the human pdx-1 gene is regulated  and SPs transcription factors. J Biol Chem 276: 17533-17540,aby HNF 3ß, HNF 1 2001.

Leibowitz, G., Ferber, S., Apelqvist, Å., Edlund, H., Gross, D.J., Cerasi, E., Melloul, D. & Kaiser, N.: IPF1/PDX1 deficiency and ß-cell dysfunction in Psammomys obesus, an animal with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 50: 1799-1806, 2001.

Melloul, D., Marshak, S. & Cerasi, E.: Regulation of pdx-1 gene expression. Diabetologia 45: 309-326, 2002.

Pertusa, J.A.G., Nesher, R., Kaiser, N., Cerasi, E., Henquin, J.C. & Jonas, J.C.: Increased glucose sensitivity of stimulus-secretion coupling in islets from Psammomys obesus after diet induction of diabetes. Diabetes 51: 2552-2560, 2002.

Leibowitz, G., Üçkaya, G., Oprescu, A.I., Cerasi, E., Gross, D.J. & Kaiser, N.: Glucose-regulated proinsulin gene expression is required for adequate insulin production during chronic glucose exposure. Endocrinology 143:3 214-220, 2002.

Leibowitz, G., Oprescu, A.I., Üçkaya, G., Gross, D.J., Cerasi, E. & Kaiser, N.: Insulin does not mediate glucose stimulation of proinsulin biosynthesis. Diabetes 52: 998-1003, 2003.

Boitard, C., Cerasi, E., Efendic, S., Henquin, J.C., Steiner, D.F. & Ferrannini, E.: Novel factors in the regulation of -cell function. Diabetes 53 (Suppl 1): S1-3, 2004.

Cerasi, E.: Introduction. In: Landmark Papers in Insulin Secretion. E. Cerasi (ed). Science Press, London, 2004, pp. ix-xvi.

kaya, G., Delagrange, P., Chavanieu, A., Grassy, G., Berthault, M.F., Ktorza, A., Cerasi, E., Leibowitz, G. & Kaiser, N.: Improvement of metabolic state in an animal model of nutrition-dependent type 2 diabetes following treatment with S 23521, a new GLP-1 analogue. J. Endocrinol. 184: 50513, 2005.

Kaiser, N., Yuli, M., kaya, G., Oprescu, A.I., Berthault, M.F., Krager, C., Donath, M.Y., Cerasi, E. & Ktorza, A.: Dynamic changes in beta-cell mass and pancreatic insulin during the evolution of nutrition-dependent diabetes in Psammomys obesus. Impact of glycemic control. Diabetes 54: 13845, 2005.

Leibowitz, G., Khaldi, M.Z., Shauer,A., Parnes, M., Oprescu, A.I., Cerasi, E., Jonas, J.C. & Kaiser, N.: Mitochondrial regulation of insulin production in rat pancreatic islets. Diabetologia 48: 1549-59, 2005.

Kaiser, N., Nesher, R., Oprescu, A., Efendic, S. & Cerasi, E.: Characterization of the action of S 21403 (mitiglinide) on insulin secretion and biosynthesis in normal and diabetic beta-cells. Br. J. Pharmacol. 146: 872-81, 2005.

Alvarsson, M., Wajngot, A., Cerasi, E. & Efendic, S.: K-value and low insulin secretion in a non-obese white population: predicted glucose tolerance after 25 years. Diabetologia 48: 2262-68, 2005.

Boitard, C., Efendic, S., Ferrannini, E., Henquin, J.C., Steiner, D.F. & Cerasi, E.: A tale of two cousins: Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 54 (Suppl 2): S1-3, 2005.

Kaiser, N., Nesher, R., Donath, M.Y., Fraenkel, M., Behar, V., Magnan, C., Ktorza, A., Cerasi, E. & Leibowitz, G.: Psammomys Obesus, a model for environment-gene interactions in Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 54 (Suppl 2): S137-44, 2005.

Warwar, N., Efendic, S., stenson, C.G., Haber, E.P., Cerasi, E. & Nesher, R.: Dynamics of glucose-induced localization of PKC isoenzymes in pancreatic -cells: Diabetes-related changes in the GK rat. Diabetes 55: 590-99, 2006.

Attali, V., Parnes, M., Ariav, Y., Cerasi, E., Kaiser, N. & Leibowitz, G.: Regulation of insulin secretion and proinsulin biosynthesis by succinate. Endocrinology 147:511018, 2006.

Steiner, D.F., Boitard, C., Cerasi, E., Efendic, S., Henquin, J.-C., & Ferrannini, E.: Towards a systems biology of insulin secretion and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 55 (Suppl 2):S1-S4, 2006.

Guest Editorship