Mitchell Geffner, MD
Dr. Geffner is Ron Burkle Chair in the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and Professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
He graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1975); did his residency at the LAC-USC Medical Center (1975-1979); and completed his fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at UCLA (1979-1982). He remained at UCLA through December 31, 2001, rising up the academic ladder to the rank of Professor in 1996. He has been at CHLA since 2002.
His longstanding basic science research interest is in the general area of hormone resistance while, on the clinical side, he is involved in studies of new formulations, delivery systems, and indications for growth-promoting therapies.
Dr. Geffner is principal investigator at CHLA of the NIH-sponsored TODAY2 trial which is studying the long-term outcomes of youth with type 2 diabetes and national endocrinology consultant to the NIH-sponsored PHACS study of adolescents with HIV infection and uninfected children exposed to anti-retroviral therapy in utero, as well as for its mitochondrial sub-study. Dr. Geffner has had a career-long interest in medical and patient education.
He has served a three-year term as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES) and was the President of PES (2014-2015). He completed a six-year term on the American Board of Pediatrics Sub-Board on Pediatric Endocrinology, including the last two years as its chair. He also serves as Medical Advisor on childhood panhypopituitarism for the MAGIC Foundation and the Pituitary Network Association, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of CARES Foundation. He is currently Secretary of the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES).
Dr. Geffner is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed research articles, pediatric endocrinology editor for UpToDate, associate editor of the journal, Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews, and co-editor of the published textbook: Pediatric Practice: Endocrinology (McGraw-Hill) (third edition coming out soon).
Disorders of growth and puberty, and adrenal hyperplasia
Education
Queens College of the City University of New York
Medical School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center; Pediatrics
Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center; Chief Resident Pediatrics
University of California Los Angeles; Pediatric Endocrinology
Accomplishments
Pediatrics (American Board of Pediatrics); Pediatric Endocrinology (American Board of Pediatrics)
Pediatric Endocrine Society; Society for Pediatric Research; American Pediatric Society; The Endocrine Society; American Diabetes Association; Los Angeles Pediatric Society
University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Cell and Molecular Biology Biomedical Sciences Symposium. Robert E. Wong Endowed Lecturer (2012); and recipient of CARES Foundation Pioneer Award (2013); Thomas Moshang Lecturer, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2016); University of Cincinnati/ Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Medical Student Summer Research Program/Fall Poster Session Keynote Speaker (2017)ss
Publications
Jacobson DL, Patel K, Williams PL, Van Dyke RB, Geffner ME, Siberry GK, DiMeglio LA, Crain MJ, Mirza A, Chen JS, McFarland E, Kacanek D, Silio M, Rich K, Borkowsky W, Miller TL for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study. Growth at age two in HIV-exposed uninfected children in the US exposed to antiretrovirals. Pediatr Inf Dis J 2017;36:189-197
Kim MS, Goodarzian F, Keenan MF, Geffner ME, Koppin CM, De Filippo RE, Kokorowski PJ. Testicular adrenal rest tumors in boys and young adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. J Urol 2017;197(3 Pt 2):931-936
Takemoto JK, Miller TL, Wang J, Jacobson DL, Geffner ME, Van Dyke RB, Gerchenson M. Insulin resistance in HIV-infected youth is associated with decreased mitochondrial respiration. AIDS 2017;31:15-23
Ferris J, Geffner ME. Are aromatase inhibitors in boys with predicted short stature and/or rapidly advancing bone age effective and safe? J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab 2017;30:311-317
Bellavia A, Williams, P, DiMeglio LA, Hazra R, Abzug MJ, Patel K, Jacobson DL, Van Dyke RB, Geffner ME. Delay in sexual maturation in perinatally HIV-infected youth is mediated by poor growth. AIDS 2017;31:1333-1341
Rosenthal NA, Bezar E, Mann S, Bachrach LK, Banerjee S, Geffner ME, Gottschalk M, Shapira SK, Hasegawa L, Feuchtbaum L. Primary care provider management of congenital hypothyroidism identified through newborn screening. Ann Thyroid Res. 2017;3:95-101.
Jacobson DL, Stephensen CB, Miller TL, Patel K, Chen JS, Van Dyke RB, Mirza A, Schuster GU, Hazra R, Ellis A, Brummel SS, Geffner ME, Silio M, Spector SA, DiMeglio LA for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study. Associations of low vitamin D and elevated parathyroid hormone concentrations with bone mineral density in perinatally HIV-infected children. JAIDS 2017;76:33-42
Jao J, Kacanek D, Williams PL, Geffner ME, Livingston EG, Sperling RS, Patel P, Bardeguez SD, Burchett SK, Chakhtoura N, Scott GB, Van Dyke RB, Abrams EJ for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) P1025 Protocol. Birth weight and preterm delivery outcomes of perinatally vs. non-perinatally HIV-infected pregnant women in the U.S.: Results from the PHACS SMARTT study and IMPAACT P1025 protocol. Clin Infect Dis 2017;65:982-989
Gravholt CH, Andersen NH, Conway GS, Dekkers OM, Geffner ME, Klein KO, Lin AE, Mauras N, Quigley CA, Rubin K, Sandberg DE, Sas TCJ, Silberbach M, Söderström-Anttila V, Stochholm K, van Alfen-van derVelden JA, Woelfle J, Backeljauw PF, on behalf of the International Turner Syndrome Consensus Group. Clinical practice guidelines for the care of girls and women with Turner Syndrome. Eur J Endocrinol 2017;177:G1-10
Garcia-Filion P, Almarzouki H, Fink C, Geffner M, Nelson MD, Borcherrt M. Brain malformations do not predict hypopituitarism in young children with optic nerve hypoplasia. Horm Res Paediatr 2017;88(3-4):251-257
Jao J, Powis KM, Kirmse B, Yu C, Epie F, Nshom E, Abrams EJ, Sperling RG, Leroith D, Geffner ME, Kurland IJ, Côté, HCF. Lower mitochondrial DNA and altered mitochondrial fuel metabolism in HIV-exposed uninfected infants in Cameroon. AIDS 2017;31:2475-2481
Yuen KCJ, Mattsson AF, Burman P, Erfurth E-M, Camacho-Hubner C, Fox JL, Verhelst J, Geffner ME, Abs R. Relative risks of contributing factors to morbidity and mortality in adults with craniopharyngioma on GH replacement. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2018;103:768-777
Jao J, Yu W, Patel K, Miller TL, Karalius B, Geffner ME, DiMeglio LA, Mirza A, Chen JS, Silio M, McFarland EJ, Van Dyke RB, Jacobson D for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) Adolescent Master Protocol (AMP). Study improvement in lipids after switch to boosted atazanavir or darunavir in children/adolescents with perinatally acquired HIV on older protease inhibitors: Results from the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study. HIV Med 2017; 31:2475-2481
Geffner ME, Patel K, Jacobson DL, Wu J, Miller TL, Hazra R, Gerschenson M, Sharma T, Silio M, Jao J, Takemoto JK, Van Dyke RB, DiMeglio LA for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS). Changes in insulin sensitivity over time and associated factors in HIV-infected adolescents. AIDS 2018;32:613-622
Sisto JM, Liu FW, Geffner ME, Berman ML. Para-ovarian adrenal rest tumors: gynecologic manifestations of untreated congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Gynecol Endocrinol 2018;Feb 20:1-3
Hardley M, Chon A, Mestman J, Nguyen C, Geffner M, Chmait R. Iodine-induced fetal hypothyroidism: diagnosis and treatment with intra-amniotic levothyroxine. Horm Res Paediatr 2018;May 23:1-5 (research article). Editor's Choice' and cover illustration.
Kelsey MM, Braffett B, Geffner M, Levitsky LL, Caprio S, McKay S, Shah R, Sprague J. Menstrual dysfunction in girls from the Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY) study.* J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2018;2309-2318 (research article). Chosen for An Endocrine Society Thematic Issue: Pediatric Endocrinology 2018. *Publication highlighted in the Endocrine Society Pediatric Thematic Issue, July 2018 and for the Endocrine Society Thematic Issue on Diabetes
Jao J, Jacobson DL, Yu W, Borkowsky W, Geffner ME, McFarland EJ, Patel K, Williams PL, Miller T, MD, for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study. A comparison of metabolic outcomes between obese HIV-exposed uninfected youth from the PHACS SMARTT Study and HIV-unexposed youth from the NHANES Study in the U.S. J Acq Imm Defic Syndromes, 2019 Feb 27
Margossian R, Williams PL, Yu W, Jacobson DL, Geffner ME, DiMeglio L, Van Dyke RB, Spector SA, Schuster GU, Stephensen CB, Miller TL, Lipshultz SE for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS). Markers of bone mineral metabolism and cardiac structure and function in perinatally HIV-infected and HIV-exposed but uninfected children and adolescents. JAIDS. 2019 Feb 21
Dhaliwal R, Shepherd JA, El ghormli L, Copeland KC, Geffner ME, Higgins, Levitsky LL, Nadeau KJ, Weinstock RS, White NH; for the TODAY Study Group. Changes in visceral and subcutaneous Fat in youth with type 2 diabetes in the TODAY study. Diabetes Care, 2019 (in press)
Research
The research of Mitchell Geffner, MD, is clinical/translational in nature and focuses on metabolic abnormalities associated with overweight and excess body fat. Key areas of study include simple obesity and type 2 diabetes, HIV infection, adrenal hyperplasia and diminished pituitary function in the setting of underdeveloped optic nerves. Research studies involve improving understanding of the basis by which these disorders lead to abnormal metabolism as well as to unfavorable long-term cardiovascular health. Finally, improved prevention strategies and treatment approaches are also being investigated.
Visit the Geffner Laboratory.
Research Studies
This study aims to (1) determine the minimum effective dose of abiraterone acetate that normalizes androstenedione levels in prepubertal children with CAH secondary to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (Phase 1 trial), and (2) assess the utility of abiraterone acetate in prepubertal children with CAH as adjunctive therapy to minimize excessive androgen secretion and allow more physiological glucocorticoid replacement (Phase 2 trial).
Intervention Study for Type 2 Diabetes.
Media
WebMD - Self-Care Tips for Parents of a Child With Central Precocious Puberty
CBS News- Type 2 diabetes tough to treat in overweight teens, study shows
ResearCHLA Blog
Why BPA-Free May Not Be Much Safer
Delaying Puberty: Reviewing a Common Therapy that Puts Early Maturation on Hold
Four Things You Didn’t Know About HIV and the Growing Child
Type 2 Diabetes Research: What’s Next?
CHLA Blog
Finding Inspiration from One of CHLA's First Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Patient
