Featuring Dr. Aaron Cypess
Show Notes:
In this conversation, Dr. Aaron Cypess discusses two pivotal moments that led him to change his approach to research. Initially planning to major in biology, he was encouraged to study chemistry, which provided a strong foundation in precision and quantitative analysis. During his endocrinology fellowship, Dr. Cypess shifted his focus to clinically relevant research, leading to his entry into the Clinical Investigator Training Program. This program allowed him to leverage his dual MD and PhD training to study human brown adipose tissue (BAT). Dr. Cypess also reflects on the pressures of being a physician-researcher and how the supportive environment at the NIH's NIDDK has enabled him to continue his impactful research. He highlights the benefits of the NIH's collaborative environment and resources, such as the NIH Clinical Center and the post-baccalaureate fellowship program, which have been instrumental in his research on BAT and its implications for human health.
Guest:
Aaron M. Cypess, MD, PhD, MMSc
Senior Investigator and Chief, Translational Physiology Section, DEOB, NIDDK, NIH
Dr. Aaron Cypess is a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health, where his research group uses a combination of clinical trials and basic science to help understand how brown fat works at the levels of the cells and then to translate the information into practical ways to treat people with obesity, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. Previously, Dr. Cypess was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, where he investigated the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases. He received his MD from the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University and his MMSc from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cypess earned his PhD from Rockefeller University where he studied Signal Transduction by the Glucagon Receptor.
Host:
David Yarmosh, MS
Lead Bioinformatician, ATCC
David Yarmosh is a lead bioinformatician in ATCC’s Sequencing and Bioinformatics Center. He’s a graduate of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. He has been working in large data aggregation and analysis since 2013 and microbial genomics with a focus on biosurveillance R&D efforts since 2016. David has led international training exercises in Peru and Senegal, sharing metagenomic analytical capabilities. His interests include genomics database construction, metadata collection, drug resistance mechanisms, bioinformatics standards, and machine learning. Since joining ATCC in 2020, David has worked extensively in SARS-CoV-2 classification, epidemiology, and genomics evaluation, including enhanced and uniform variant reporting. He has contributed more broadly to genomics reporting and analytical standardization and he has helped develop the podcast Behind the Biology, which he now hosts.
