Peter Kopp, MD

Interim Director, Center for Genetic Medicine
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology
Feinberg School of Medicine

Faculty Biography:
As a Feinberg faculty member and a Northwestern Memorial Faculty Foundation consultant, Kopp has been a center member since 2002. He was appointed the Interim Director of the Center for Genetic Medicine in 2007, where he brings both clinical and research expertise to the directorship. Dr. Kopp earned his MD at the University of Berne, Switzerland, where he was an attending physician and researcher until moving to the United States in 1993. He started his career at Northwestern that same year as a research fellow in the lab of J. Larry Jameson, now Lewis Landsberg Dean and vice president for medical affairs at Feinberg. Kopp became an assistant professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, metabolism, and molecular medicine in 1997 and was awarded tenure in 2006.

His research concentrates on congenital hypothyroidism and Pendred syndrome, a genetic disorder marked by congenital deafness and thyroid abnormalities. Pendred syndrome is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes pendrin, an anion transporter. Kopp’s work focuses on the function and structure of pendrin in thyroid cells. His lab also studies the genetics of diabetes insipidus, a condition that prevents the necessary retention of water, and the effects of genetic variants on androgen levels in young men, which is important for understanding aspects of future prostate cancer development.

Kopp’s affiliations include the American Thyroid Association, where he is a member and former chair of the program committee and current chair of the continuing medical education and guidelines committee. He is an associate editor of the journal Thyroid and is on the editorial board of the journal Endocrinology.