Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research studies role of brain circuits in metabolism

Tamas L. Horvath, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Section of Comparative Medicine, has been named the inaugural Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Research.

Horvath’s research is focused on neuronal circuits that support energy metabolism, as well as pathological conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, that affect these circuits. He also studies the role of metabolic signals in neurodegenerative diseases.

Horvath investigates the role of synaptic plasticity in the mediation of peripheral hormones’ effects on the central nervous system as well as the role of mitochondrial membrane potential in normal and pathological brain functions. His research combines classical neurobiological approaches, including electrophysiology and neuroanatomy, with endocrine and genetic techniques to better understand biological events at the level of the organism.

Horvath, also a professor of neurobiology and of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, is the founding director of the Yale Program in Integrative Cell Signaling and Neurobiology of Metabolism, which was launched in 2009.

A winner of the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award in 2010, Horvath has also been honored with an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship by the Republic of Germany’s Ministry of Science.

The Wallace Professorship in Biomedical Research was established in August 2010 by philanthropists Jean and David W. Wallace of Greenwich, Conn. The endowed chair supports the academic, research, and teaching activities of a School of Medicine faculty member whose work advances the school’s strategic vision and who is recognized as among its most promising and productive researchers.