Michael Schwartz

Dr. Schwartz is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of Washington and Director of the UW Medicine Diabetes & Obesity Center of Excellence. His research investigates how dysfunctions of body weight and blood glucose result from impairment of the function of neurons in the hypothalamus and other brain areas that regulate food intake, autonomic function and glucose metabolism. He has focused on how insulin and leptin enter the brain and influence these neural circuits to control both food intake and glucose metabolism, and how inherited or acquired impairment of these neurons can favor weight gain and insulin resistance and can hasten the onset of diabetes.  This neuronal impairment also can increase the necessary insulin requirements when treating uncontrolled diabetes.  He is a member of the Association of American Physicians, the Western Association of Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.  Dr. Schwartz is the recipient of the 2007 Williams-Rachmiel Levine Award for Outstanding Mentorship from the Western Society for Clinical Investigation, the 2006 Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research from Columbia University, and many other awards.  His work has been featured in a number of prestigious peer-reviewed publications, including Science, Nature, and Nature Neuroscience, and he is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Endocrinology, American Journal of Physiology, Endocrine Reviews, and Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology.