Obesity Researcher Honored With Scientific Achievement Award

CINCINNATI—Randy Seeley, PhD, University of Cincinnati (UC) professor of psychiatry and associate director of the Obesity Research Center, has been given the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

The award recognizes outstanding scientific achievement in the field of diabetes, “taking into consideration independence of thought and originality,” and is being presented this week at the ADA’s 69th Annual Scientific Sessions in New Orleans.

Seeley’s work is focused on peripheral hormones in the central nervous system that regulate food intake and body weight. In particular, he has focused on the numerous hypothalamic and gastrointestinal peptides and their associated receptors that influence both energy intake and energy expenditure.

He leads a partnership with Cincinnati’s Ethicon Endo-Surgery aimed at better understanding of the basic biology behind obesity and finding new solutions for treating obesity and related conditions, including diabetes. The main focus of this research is to gain insight into the hows and whys behind bariatric surgery—such as the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure.

Seeley is the Donald C. Harrison Endowed Chair and past winner of the Lilly Scientific Achievement Award (2003) and the Ernst Oppenheimer Award from the Endocrine Society (2008). In 2006 he was invited to present at the Nobel Symposium.