Irving M. Spitz, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P.

In this issue of Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, the descriptive, basic science, and potential clinical usefulness of a relatively new class of compounds known as selective progesterone receptor modulators (SPRMs) is presented. I was able to recruit Dr. Irving M. Spitz to act as Guest Editor for this exciting issue. Dr. Spitz graduated as a M.B.B.Ch. from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa. He subsequently obtained his, M.D., Ph.D., and D.Sc. from the same university. In 1997, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Currently, he is Director of the Institute of Hormone Research at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. He is Professor of Endocrinology at Ben Gurion University in Israel, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York.

Early in his career he turned his attention to reproductive endocrinology and conducted studies in isolated gonadotropin deficiency and the control of prolactin secretion. He described the first documented subject with isolated follicle-stimulating hormone deficiency and subsequently described the first subject with isolated prolactin deficiency.

For the last two decades, his research interest has focused on progesterone antagonists and SPRMs. He conducted some early physiological studies on the mechanism of action of these compounds and directed the first large U.S. multicenter studies with mifepristone. During the last decade, he organized and served as chairman of three major international symposia related to these compounds. His other research interests include male contraception, the andropause, and the clinical application of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists in the hormonal treatment of prostate cancer and precocious puberty. For more than 20 years, he was a senior scientist at the Population Council in New York, where he was an integral member of a team that developed transdermal, injectable, implantable, and vaginal drug delivery systems for steroids and peptides for reproductive health care and cancer. He has designed and managed numerous multicenter clinical trials and supervised many laboratories in the developed and developing worlds.

Dr. Spitz is a member of the Endocrine Society, Society for Gynecological Investigation, the European Society of Human Reproductions and Embryology, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has authored more than 200 publications. He has lectured extensively throughout the world and consults for several major international pharmaceutical companies.

His eclectic range of hobbies includes music, art, archeology, history, and cartography of the Holy Land. He often lectures on these topics and is the Music Editor of Education Update, a New York-based publication.

Dr. Spitz has recruited several outstanding scientists who have contributed timely and important in-depth articles related to progesterone receptor antagonists (PAs) and selective progesterone receptor modulators (SPRMs). This issue will serve as a classic primer of these compounds.