Steven Smith

Biography

Steven Smith, M.D., has over 15 years of post-graduate academic leadership and scientific accomplishments in the areas of translational science in metabolism, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Steven joined Sanford-Burnham in August 2009 from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana where he was Professor and Assistant Executive Director of Clinical Research. Dr. Smith received him M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas in 1988, completed a residency in Internal Medicine from Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas and went on to complete a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans. From New Orleans, he moved to Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge where he developed a translational research program in a multi-disciplinary research environment.

Research Interest

Obesity and diabetes are epidemic in Western societies and account for at least 1/10th of health care expenditures nationwide. The reasons for this are complex; however, it is clear that there is wide variation in individual susceptibility to our obesogenic environment. Our fundamental hypothesis is that the regulation of metabolism in peripheral tissues, specifically skeletal muscle, determines susceptibility to our rich environment and ultimately the common chronic diseases diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In the clinic, we aim to understand the control of fatty acid metabolism but also test novel therapeutic interventions to reduce body weight and treat diabetes. Our more "basic" research focuses on the control of substrate switching between fat and carbohydrate with a particular emphasis on the regulation of fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle and the adipose tissue dysfunction that occurs in obesity.