Deborah J. Clegg PhD

Deborah J. Clegg, Ph.D., is a Professor, Associate Dean for Research at the College of Nursing and Health Professionals at Drexel University Philadelphia, PA, and Vice President for Research at TTUHSC El Paso. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Oregon State University, Dr. Clegg earned her MBA from Boston University and her Ph.D. in Nutrition from the University of Georgia. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Obesity Research Center at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Clegg’s laboratory focuses on understanding the impact of sex hormones on energy homeostasis, metabolic function, and adipose tissue distribution. Specifically, her lab researches whether androgens and estrogens are involved in the modulation of the major bioenergetic and/or biosynthetic pathways that normally support energy homeostasis and adipose tissue function. There are sex differences with respect to body fat distribution and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Disease prevalence changes over the course of the lifespan due to fluctuations in sex hormone levels. 

Dr. Clegg’s expertise in sex steroids and metabolic disease resulted from her early training and subsequent research carried out over the past 12 years. During her postdoctoral education at the University of Cincinnati, she obtained strong guidance in intermediary metabolism, and her research focused on the consequences of impaired metabolism to energy homeostasis. Dr. Clegg mastered techniques to evaluate physiology in cells and whole animals. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati, she applied this expertise in physiology where she established methods to interrogate novel aspects of sex hormones and their impact on metabolism. New principles emerging from this work suggest that specific metabolic pathways are influenced by sex hormones and are necessary for the development of adipose tissue function and metabolism. In April 2008 Dr. Clegg joined the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where she established her independent laboratory and continued to interrogate how estrogens and their receptors impact both the brain and adipose tissues. Dr. Clegg was recruited to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2014 where her focus now is on translational medicine where she is applying her basic science findings to human clinical trials in an attempt to move her science from ‘bench to bedside. Dr. Clegg has published over 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Cell Metabolism, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and American Journal of Physiology. She also serves as a reviewer for several journals and has been invited to lecture on her areas of expertise at both the international and national levels.