Lead Investigator

Joel Elmquist, D.V.M., Ph.D. has identified new CNS pathways that contribute to the regulation of body weight. He has developed a series of genetically-modified mice that provide key reagents for the dissection of the relative roles of different hypothalamic signaling pathways in feeding and satiety. He was recently recruited from Harvard to direct a Center for Hypothalamic Research to study Obesity at UTSW. He is Chair of Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes study section.

Associate Investigators

Eric Nestler, M.D., Ph.D. is Chairman of Psychiatry and a leading investigator in molecular psychiatry. He defined many biochemical events associated with drug addiction in the brain; it is likely that many of these same pathways are involved in the processes that drive food intake.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the NIH Advisory Mental Health Council.

Keith Parker, M.D., Ph.D. is chief of the Division of Endocrinology. He discovered steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) was required for the development of steroidogenic tissues and discovered that deletion of SF-1 in the hypothalamus causes obesity in mice. He is the recipient of the Oppenheimer Award from the Endocrine Society, Transatlantic Medal from the British Endocrine Societies, and Research Award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction.

Masashi Yanagisawa M.D., Ph.D. is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He discovered both the ligands and the receptors for two key hormonal systems that regulate vascular tone and arousal (endothelins and orexins).   

Andrew Zinn, M.D., Ph.D. is a human geneticist who discovered that mutations in single-minded 1 (SIM1), a protein expressed in the hypothalamus, causes early onset obesity in humans.

Bassil M. Kublaoui, M.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics who was supported by the P20 as a Fellow. Now an independent investigator, he will decipher the mechanism by which single-minded 1 (SIM1) regulates body weight.

Carol A. Tamminga, M.D. is a psychiatrist and is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Dept. of Psychiatry.  She has expertise in human trials and clinical depression.  She helps to translate the molecular, genetic and neuroanatomic observations made in our unique models directly to the human brain.  She is also the Director of the Dallas Brain Bank, which is a key resource to the Taskforce on Obesity Research.