Nutrition Science Initiative Recruits Exceptional Leader in Behavior and Metabolism
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) November 15, 2013 -- The Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI) is proud to announce the appointment of Mark Friedman, Ph.D. as the Vice President of Research. Friedman officially joined NuSI on October 15, 2013. NuSI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission of reducing the individual, social, and economic burden of obesity and its related chronic diseases by enhancing the quality of science in nutrition and obesity research.
“Mark’s unique background and expertise bridging eating behavior and energy metabolism is critical to NuSI’s mission as we pursue the most rigorous nutrition science to tell us once and for all, what we should eat to be healthy,” said Peter Attia, M. D., President, NuSI. He continued, “We are thrilled that Mark has joined us and will be spearheading the facilitation of our clinical trials along with strategically planning our scientific initiatives in the coming years.”
Throughout his career, Friedman’s research has been directed at understanding the bodily mechanisms that control eating behavior, including overeating in obesity, with a particular focus on the role of energy metabolism and the signaling function of the liver. Most recently, he was a Member and Associate Director at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a nonprofit, basic research institute devoted to research on the mechanisms and functions of taste and smell, including appetite and nutrition. He received his doctorate in 1976 from Princeton University and, after postdoctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh and the Collège de France in Paris, taught at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst before joining Monell. Friedman, a Guggenheim Fellowship awardee, has been the recipient of numerous research grants, primarily from the National Institutes of Health, and has authored over 150 papers covering empirical and theoretical work on appetite, obesity, hunger and satiety, and food preferences.
As the VP of Research, Friedman will oversee NuSI’s integrated research funding strategy and prioritization. He will organize and oversee a Scientific Advisory Board and several consortia of scientists to collaborate on the design and execution of well-controlled experimental studies that directly address the most important nutrition questions relevant to obesity, diabetes and their associated chronic diseases.
In addition to his work at Monell, Friedman’s academic affiliations include: being a member of the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism and the Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; a visiting scientist with St. George’s Hospital Medical School, Department of Physiology, London, UK, in 2000; being a member of the David Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and a visiting scientist at the Collège de France, Paris, France in 1975-1976. Friedman is married with 2 adult children and will reside in San Diego, California.
About NuSI
NuSI builds teams of the best scientists in health and human nutrition and provides them with funding and the scientific freedom to study the most vexing health and metabolic questions plaguing us today. This is done within an overarching strategy that systematically tackles some of the most critical questions asked by those struggling with the burden of metabolic illness today.
In 2013, NuSI funded and launched three landmark human trials with some of the best research institutions across the country – Stanford University, Harvard University, Boston Children’s Hospital, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at National Institutes of Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University, and the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes – and this is only the beginning. NuSI-funded researchers may not share the same hypotheses for what’s driving the obesity and diabetes epidemics, but they do agree on NuSI’s strategy to resolve it.
Founded in September 2012, NuSI operates on funding from private citizens and like-minded organizations.
Stacie Spector, Nutrition Science Initiative, http://www.nusi.org, +1 858-914-5400, [email protected]
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