Randy J Seeley

Dr. Randy Seeley is the Henry King Ransom Endowed Professor of Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He also serves as the director of the NIH-funded Michigan Nutrition Obesity Research Center (MNORC). Before that, Dr. Seeley was Professor of Medicine and held the Donald C. Harrison Endowed Chair at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He also served as the Director of the Cincinnati Diabetes and Obesity Center (CDOC). His scientific work has focused on the brain-gut axis and its role in the regulation of energy balance and metabolism. He and his lab have worked to understand the actions of GLP-1 agonists and identify the molecular underpinnings of the potent effects of bariatric surgery on weight and metabolism.

Dr. Seeley received his B.A. from Grinnell College in 1989 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. He then spent two years as a fellow and two years on the faculty at the University of Washington before relocating to the University of Cincinnati in 1997 and then to the University of Michigan in 2014. He has published over 390 peer-reviewed articles including articles in Science, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Science Translational Medicine, Cell Metabolism, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Collectively, this work has been cited more than 43,000 times and Dr. Seeley has a Scopus h-index of 103. He is the recipient of the 2003 Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from the Obesity Society given to the individual with the highest level of scientific achievement in obesity research in North America less than 15 years after their terminal degree. He is also the co-recipient of the 2008 Ernst Oppenheimer Award from the Endocrine Society. This Award is the premier award to an investigator under the age of 45 in recognition of meritorious accomplishment in the field of basic or clinical endocrinology. He also received the 2009 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the American Diabetes Association. This award is presented to an individual medical researcher under age 45 who has made an outstanding contribution to diabetes research that demonstrates both originality and independence of thought.

Dr. Seeley has also served on numerous review panels for the NIH and was Chair of the Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes review panel. He served on the NIDDK Clinical Obesity Research Panel and on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. He currently serves as Senior Associate Editor for Diabetes.

Dr. Seeley has also been sought after by companies trying to bring new therapies for obesity and diabetes to patients. He has served as a consultant or member of a Scientific Advisory Board for venture capital, medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotech companies such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Merck, Takeda, Amylin, Angiochem, Zealand, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eisai, Janssen, Novartis, Sanofi, Kallyope, Scohia, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Zafgen, Gilead, Kintai, Ionis, Rewind Health, and Calibrate. His laboratory has worked on numerous collaborative research projects with industry partners including Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Amylin, Roche, Merck, Zafgen, Zealand, Mannkind, Boehringer Ingelheim, Easai, Givaudan, AstraZeneca, Ablaris, Kintai, Energesis, Ionis, Fractyl, Amgen, Glyscend, Bullfrog AI and Eli Lilly. He has also been sought for numerous media interviews about obesity therapy including in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, STAT News, and PBS’s Nova.

His scientific work has focused on the brain-gut axis and its role in the regulation of energy balance and metabolism with a focus on new treatment strategies. He and his lab have worked to understand the actions of GLP-1 agonists and identify the molecular underpinnings of the potent effects of bariatric surgery on weight and metabolism.