Featuring Dr. Aaron Cypess
Show Notes:
In this episode, Dr. Aaron Cypess discusses the future of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and white adipose tissue (WAT) research at the NIDDK, focusing on three pillars: integrative physiology, noninvasive imaging, and clinical trials. First, there's integrative physiology, where scientists use cell lines to dig into how fat cells work, how they burn energy, and how they respond to obesity treatments. Then there's noninvasive imaging—think PET-CT and MRI—which helps researchers actually see where fat is in the body and how active it is. And finally, clinical trials are testing treatments like mirabegron to see if they can activate brown fat and boost metabolic health. Dr. Cypess highlights the importance how taking this combined approach to studying BAT and WAT physiology can open doors to real, meaningful benefits to patients.
Guest:
Aaron M. Cypess, MD, PhD, MMSc
Senior Investigator and Chief, Translational Physiology Section, DEOB, NIDDK, NIH
Aaron M. Cypess, MD, PhD, is a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Translational Physiology Section at the NIH in Washington, DC. He studied chemistry at Princeton University where he graduated with highest honors. He has a medical degree from Cornell University, a doctorate from The Rockefeller University, and a master’s in medical sciences from Harvard University. Prior to his arrival at the NIH, Dr. Cypess was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He trained in the research group of C. Ronald Kahn, where they demonstrated that brown adipose tissue is a functional organ in adult humans. Dr. Cypess’ current research focuses on human brown and white adipose tissue physiology and their utilization to treat obesity-related metabolic disease.
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.
