The rockefeller university

Rockefeller’s Svetlana Mojsov has been named to the TIME100 list of Most Influential People of 2024, which honors artists, innovators, leaders, and pioneers in a variety of fields.

A research associate professor, Mojsov was named to the list for her groundbreaking discoveries about a blood sugar–regulating gut hormone called GLP-1, which paved the way for the blockbuster diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic, Victoza, and Wegovy. These so-called GLP-1 agonists have transformed clinical care for blood-sugar management and weight loss.

Mojsov began researching diabetes at Rockefeller as a student and postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Nobel laureate Bruce Merrifield. In the 1980s, she moved to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she started investigating the then-mysterious GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1). She was the first to identify the biologically active sequence of GLP-1, hidden within its full string of 37 amino acids.

In collaboration with others, Mojsov went on to show that GLP-1 triggers insulin release in the pancreas, work that led directly to the therapeutic development of GLP-1 agonists. The fact that this new class of drugs are now used by millions of people is highly gratifying, she says: “It makes me feel professionally and personally fulfilled.”