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Dr Dhillo awarded Goulstonian lectureship - 08 February 2010

Consultant endocrinologist Dr Waljit Dhillo has been awarded the prestigious Goulstonian lectureship from the Royal College of Physicians.

The lectureship is awarded each year for academic achievements and has been running since 1639.

Waljit Dhillo picDr Dhillo (pictured left) will deliver the Goulstonian lecture at the Royal College of Physicians later this year on his translational research into the hormone kisspeptin, which could be a novel therapy for infertility. He said: "I'm very proud to have received this award. It's a great honour to have my research acknowledged in this way and knowing that it has the potential to improve human health."

Dr Dhillo has looked at the effects of injecting kisspeptin into healthy human volunteers and more recently in infertile women. He measured their levels of two key hormones - luteinising hormone and follicle stimulating hormone - essential for ovulation and fertility.

His work has shown for the first time in humans that kisspeptin significantly increased these hormone levels when compared with a placebo.

Dr Dhillo continued: "Working at Imperial means that it's much easier for researchers to undertake human clinical studies of this kind because the entire infrastructure - from a dedicated clinical investigation unit, radiology and clinical chemistry support is already in place."

His kisspeptin study was funded by an MRC experimental medicine grant.