The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging Webinar Series:
Roger H. Unger, M.D., Lectureship
Title: Adipose Tissue Health: Major Determinant in Cardiovascular Disease

Professor of Molecular Medicine and Internal Medicine (Cardiology); James T. Willerson, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Research; Director, Center for Cardiovascular Genetics, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Houston, TX, USA.

Professor, Department of Internal Medicine; Gifford O. Touchstone Jr. and Randolph G. Touchstone; Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research; Director, Touchstone Diabetes Center, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.

Dr. Scherer received his doctorate (Ph.D.) in biochemistry from the Biocenter at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He joined Dr. Harvey Lodish's research group as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research where he studied intracellular trafficking in adipocytes and identified adiponectin, as a new protein that was exclusively expressed by the adipocytes and was a major regulator of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. This seminal discovery was the foundation of the new field of adipokines. The discovery along with the subsequent findings established Dr. Scherer as the world-renowned and among the most impactful scientists in biomedical sciences.

Upon completion of his training in 1997, Dr. Scherer joined Albert Einstein College of Medicine and rapidly rose to the rank of academia to full professorship in 2007. He was recruited to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas to lead the Touchstone Diabetes Center and later the Department of Cell Biology as an Interim Chairman, collectively leading a team of 180 faculty for three years.

Dr. Scherer has made numerous high-impact seminal discoveries, including adiponectin and endotrophin, and has published his findings in about 600 articles in major biomedical journals, such as Diabetes, JCI, Nature Medicine, Science, Nature, and Cell. Collectively, his publications have been cited over 67000 times per the Web of Science (Clarivate) and have earned him an H index of 126 (Google Scholar H index 132). His article on the discovery of adiponectin has been cited over 2,500 times and its role in the regulation of insulin action over 2,000 times. His research has been supported by multiple R01 and other major awards from NIH.

Dr. Scherer has been recognized for his discoveries by delivering several endowed and keynote lectureships and receiving numerous awards, including the “triple crown” of American, European, and Asian awards for diabetes research: the 2015 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, the 2017 EASD-Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize for Excellence, and the 2018 Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research. He has been listed by Thomson Reuters (now Clarivate) as the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” and one of the most highly cited individuals in biology and biochemistry from 2004 to 2021.

Dr. Scherer has an exceedingly active academic life and serves on several professional societies, including the American Diabetes Association, The Endocrine Society, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association, to name a few. Dr. Scherer serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Cell Metabolism. He has been an active member and chair of several NIH study sections and scientific review boards of several universities and academic institutions. He is on the scientific advisory board of several societies and over a dozen industries. He is also a co-founder of PANAMAB, which is focused on developing monoclonal antibodies against breast cancer, fibrosis, and metabolism.

The lectureship is named after Roger H. Unger, M.D. a visionary endocrinologist and a longtime Professor of Internal Medicine, a preeminent authority on glucagon and the development of diabetes, and the founding Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research at UT Southwestern.