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The Endocrine Society 2005 Laureate Awards, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 90, Issue 8, 1 August 2005, Pages 4985–4995, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.90.8.0794
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Citation for the 2005 Fred Conrad Koch Award of The Endocrine Society to Dr. William F. Crowley, Jr.1
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Bill Crowley was born in Meriden, Connecticut in 1943. He attended Holy Cross College and Tufts Medical School and trained in medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he remained, with the exception of a short sojourn in the United States Navy, for the whole of his career. Early on, influenced by John Potts, Bill embarked upon a career in endocrinology with an emphasis on reproductive endocrinology. His first tasks in this endeavor were to develop reliable assays for sex steroids and gonadotropins. Once this was accomplished, he used these simple but powerful tools to dissect the pathophysiology of a number of disorders of reproduction. He first examined the secretory patterns of LH and FSH in hypogonadotropic men and showed that fertility could be restored with GnRH replacement administered in a pulsatile manner. Exploring the clinical utility of the newly developed GnRH superagonists, he found that, paradoxically, serum gonadotropin concentrations fell rather than rose, leading to the idea of pituitary “desensitization” and the possibility of using this phenomenon as a therapeutic tool in gonadotropin-mediated, or dependent, diseases such as precocious puberty and prostate cancer. Striking success was achieved in both afflictions. Molecular-based studies into the cellular basis of these diseases followed and have led to a better understanding of the roles of the DAX-1, KAL-1, and FGFR-1 genes and, most recently, the GPR54 gene in normal and disordered function of the reproductive axis in men and women. This work continues and promises many more insights into the causes of disordered reproduction and, in parallel, opportunities for rational therapy.
