Marilyn Ader PhD

Marilyn Ader is the Associate Director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She is a card-carrying physiologist by training, with early interests in the biologic adaptations that occur with aging.

During her doctoral studies at the University of Southern California, she studied with Dr. Richard Bergman, a pre-eminent engineer who recognized the power of engineering principles of feedback regulation to the investigation of biological questions, specifically the control of the blood sugar. Through this partnership that continues to this day, Dr. Ader has been an essential player in the development and validation of mathematical models that have dramatically altered our understanding of glucose metabolism and its dysregulation in obesity and diabetes.

Through this work, Dr. Ader is recognized worldwide for her expertise in systems physiology and inter-organ crosstalk in the area of carbohydrate metabolism. Dr. Ader has served on or chaired many grant review panels of the NIH as well as the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association, and she has been PI of projects funded by both the NIH and industry. She is currently involved in both basic science and clinical projects to investigate the metabolic compensations that occur during the development of insulin resistance, and the mechanisms by which inadequate compensation is the critical factor in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes.