Alan Robert Saltiel (born November 29, 1953) is an American endocrinologist and biochemist. He is Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, holds the Maryam Ahmadian Endowed Chair in Metabolic Health, the Director of the UCSD/UCLA Diabetes Research Center and Director of the Institute for Diabetes and Metabolic Health at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

Education and career

Saltiel was born in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

(1975) in zoology and a Ph.D. from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

(1980) in biochemistry. During his doctorate studies in biochemistry at the University of North Carolina, Saltiel worked on

thyroid The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans it is in the neck and consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by a thin band of tissue called the thyroid isthmus. The thy ...

-stimulating hormone and its relationship to

thyroid cancer Thyroid cancer is cancer that develops from the tissues of the thyroid gland. It is a disease in which cells grow abnormally and have the potential to spread to other parts of the body. Symptoms can include swelling or a lump in the neck. C ...

. As a post-doctoral fellow under Pedro Cuatrecasas in the

Wellcome Research Laboratories Wellcome Research Laboratories was a site in Beckenham, south-east London, that was a main research centre for pharmaceuticals. Until 1965, this laboratory site was situated in Kent. History In 1894 Henry Wellcome set up a laboratory in central L ...

, he began investigating insulin. He was distinguished research fellow and senior director of the department of cell biology at Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research Division (now

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...

Global Research). In addition to having published more than 320 research papers, Saltiel holds 19 patents and has extensive experience with the FDA's testing and approval process for new drugs. Saltiel was the Mary Sue Coleman Director of the

Life Sciences Institute The Life Sciences Institute (LSI) is a collaborative, multidisciplinary research institution located on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It encompasses 27 faculty-led teams from 13 schools and departments throughout U-M. Th ...

at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

; a professor at the Division of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the

Medical School; a faculty member at the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center; and John Jacob Abel Professor of Life Sciences, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology; a member of the Steering Committee Member at the Center for Advancing Research & Solutions for Society. He served as the director of the Life Sciences Institute from 2001 to 2015. He was also a John Jacob Abel Collegiate Professor of the Life Sciences at the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the UM Medical School.University of Michigan
/ref> Saltiel's lab researches signaling pathways in

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

action.In Diabetes, a Complex of Causes - New York Times
/ref> Such research is aimed at identifying the various ways in which problems with the

insulin signaling pathway Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

trigger

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. Researchers in the lab have also uncovered new hormone signaling pathways and the role that

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

s and

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s play in this process. These discoveries may reveal how the insulin-glucose balance necessary for the survival of the cell is lost due to

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

in those with

Awards and achievements

Saltiel has received many awards over the course of his career, including the

Rosalyn Yalow Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (July 19, 1921 – May 30, 2011) was an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) for development of the radioimmunoassay ...

Research and Development Award from the

American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes (including type 1 diabetes, ...

, Hirschl Award, The John Jacob Abel Award from ASPET and The Goodman and Gilman and Pharmacia Awards, also from ASPET.Access to articles : Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
/ref> He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His work is often cited in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

literature; with more than 35,000 citations as of February 2014, he ranks among the most influential scientists in biology and biochemistry in the world.Highly Cited Research
/ref> His true dream is to star for the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

References

External links

Life Sciences Institute, University of MichiganCurriculum Vitae
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saltiel, Alan R. Living people Duke University alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan University of Michigan faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine University of California, San Diego faculty 1953 births People from New Brunswick, New Jersey Pfizer people American endocrinologists American biochemists