Harvey Grill

Harvey Grill is a regulatory physiologist and Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on identifying the neural circuits, neurochemicals, and intracellular signals that control energy balance. Progress on these questions is needed to develop more effective treatments for obesity and anorexia. Grill's work emphasizes the role of gastrointestinal signals and caudal brainstem processing in the control of meal size.  He has advanced the hypothesis that leptin has its intake suppressive effect by amplifying the neural processing of gastrointestinal signals in neurons of the NTS. Grill has advanced the view that the neural control of energy balance is anatomically distributed in contrast to the generally held view that control is centered in the neurons of  the arcuate hypothalamus. Grill has provided a wide range of data that support a significant contribution to energy balance control arising from neurons in the caudal brainstem. Professor Grill and colleagues are also investigating the oral motor and gastrointestinal actions of anorexic agents. Professor Grill has been an invited speaker at international and national and conferences. He has authored over 120 research papers, served on NIH study sections, as president of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, in developing the scientific program for the Obesity Society and the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior and is a member of the editorial board for the journal Obesity.