Peter J. Tontonoz BA, MD, PhD

Peter Tontonoz received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his MD and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School. His Ph.D. thesis was carried out at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and his postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He completed his residency training in Pathology at the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Tontonoz is currently Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. The focus of his laboratory is the control of gene expression by lipids and the role of nuclear receptors in lipid metabolism. His major research contributions include the delineation of the role of PPAR and LXR in adipogenesis and atherosclerosis, and elucidation of mechanisms of crosstalk between metabolism, inflammation, and immunity.

Dr. Tontonoz is the recipient of the Richard. E. Weitzman Award from the Endocrine Society, the Jeffrey M. Hoeg Award for Basic Science and Clinical Research from the American Heart Association, and a Bristol Myers-Squibb Freedom to Discover Award in Cardiovascular Disease. He is the Vice-President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Tontonoz serves on a number of editorial boards and is an Editor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.