"The Expected, the Unexpected, and the Downright Amazing Impact of the Adipocyte on Systemic Metabolism"

Speaker:

Philipp Scherer, Ph.D.
Professor of Internal Medicine
Director, Touchstone Diabetes Center
UT Southwestern Medical Center

About Philipp Scherer:

Originally from Switzerland, Dr. Scherer holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a doctorate in biochemistry from the Biocenter at the University of Basel. He completed his postdoctoral training as a Research Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in the laboratory of Harvey Lodish, Ph.D.

Prior to joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2007, he served as a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he became a professor in 2006.

Dr. Scherer’s research focuses on adipose cells and their normal functions and roles in disease. His 1995 discovery that adipocytes produce the hormone adiponectin transformed the view of the cells, which had been regarded as simple storage sites for excess triglycerides. They are now seen as highly responsive to extracellular stimuli, playing a central role in overall energy homeostasis and essential for certain aspects of the immune system.

Dr. Scherer holds the Gifford O. Touchstone, Jr. and Randolph G. Touchstone Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research, and the Touchstone/West Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research.