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George R. Merriam, MD

Scientific Advisor, Kronos Longevity Research Institute

George R. Merriam III is currently Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also Deputy Director of Research at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System. Prior to this, Dr. Merriam was a member of the faculty of the developmental endocrinology branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, where he became director of the Clinical Neuroendocrinology Unit and then the Reproductive Endocrinology Unit and adjunct Professor at George Washington University School of Medicine. This unique setting provided academic training in medical, pediatric and reproductive endocrinology and opportunities for close collaboration among internists, gynecologists and pediatricians. Dr. Merriam supervised trainees in all these disciplines.

Dr. Merriam's current cross-disciplinary research interests focus on the neuroendocrine regulation of growth hormone and gonadotropins and on trophic factors in aging. His interest in the central regulation of reproductive function in both men and women has helped define the dynamics of the human menstrual cycle, the effects of estrogens in the brain, the role of photoperiodism in gonadal function and the effects of declining androgen levels in older men. His interest in the central regulation of growth hormone (GH) has led to clinical studies at both ends of the life cycle, including the role of GH secretagogues in treating GH-deficient children and their potential utility to defend and promote the capability for functional independence in aging. He also participates in interdepartmental collaborative studies of the effects of sex steroids and of GH secretagogues on cognition, mood, affect and sleep in older adults. This work has resulted in a patent, three books and more than 300 articles, chapters and published abstracts.

Dr. Merriam has received numerous academic honors, including a Presidential Scholarship, election to the Junior Eight of Phi Beta Kappa, the Reznick Research Prize and the Moseley Traveling Fellowship of Harvard Medical School and Leadership VA. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and to the Western Association of Physicians. He is associate editor of Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, an officer of the American Neuroendocrine Society, and an organizer of the annual Neuroendocrine Workshops.

Dr. Merriam received his doctorate in medicine from Harvard University with thesis research under the supervision of Dr. Frederick Naftolin. He served his medical residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York and his endocrine fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Merriam received his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and physics from Harvard University, where he secured both the Charles Henry Fiske-Harvard Scholarship and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship to the University of Cambridge. He received a Master of Arts from Cambridge and earned first-class honors in natural sciences.