1. Rudolph Leibel was born on 1942 and is the Christopher J Murphy Professor of Diabetes Research, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, and Director of the Division of Molecular Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics.
Rudolph Leibel is co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center and executive director of the Russell and Angelica Berrie Program in Cellular Therapy, Co-director of the New York Obesity Research Center and the Columbia University Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center.
Rudolph Leibel has published hundreds of scientific papers on obesity, and has authored and co-authored 70 scientific papers on the topic of leptin specifically.
In 1978, based on his theory that genetics played a major role in determining body weight regulation in humans, Rudolph Leibel left Harvard University to join Jules Hirsch at Rockefeller University with the goal of finding the factor that drove eating.
In collaboration with Douglas Coleman, Rudolph Leibel determined that a mutation of the ob gene resulted in mice that were unable to manufacture a working satiety-signaling protein and that a db mutation resulted in mice that had the protein, but lacked the ability to detect the signal.
Rudolph Leibel obtained ongoing funding from the National Institutes of Health and other sources, allowing the team to develop and utilize new techniques in their research such as chromosome microdissection.
Rudolph Leibel was not a co-author of this paper although Rudolph Leibel was acknowledged in fine print at the end of the paper as an "important contributor to the early phases of this work".
Rudolph Leibel was bitter about not being included as a full co-author and being relegated to a section of special thanks that included Friedman's fiancee, who was not a scientist; various theories surrounding the omission of Rudolph Leibel as co-author of this important paper are presented in Ellen Ruppel Shells 2002 book The Hungry Gene.
Rudolph Leibel continued to author and co-author numerous papers on the connection between genetics and obesity.
Rudolph Leibel was an Intern and Junior Resident in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1967 to 1969, after which he served as a Major in the United States Army Medical Corps from 1969 to 1971.
Rudolph Leibel was a Research Associate in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1975 to 1978 and joined Rockefeller University from 1978 to 1981 as a Rockefeller Scholar in Clinical Science.
Rudolph Leibel completed his training as an Established Investigator at the American Heart Association from 1985 to 1989.
Rudolph Leibel has authored or co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers, which have been cited over 13,000 times in the world scientific literature.
Rudolph Leibel serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, International Journal of Obesity, and Obesity Research, and has received numerous awards for scientific and pioneering work in medical research.
In recognition of his scientific work, Rudolph Leibel was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and serves as a member of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Federal Advisory Council.
Rudolph Leibel's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, the New York State Stem Cell Science Program, the Russell Berrie Foundation and the Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust, as well as Astra Zeneca.
Rudolph Leibel is the Chairman of the Selection Committee for the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research and is the co-director of the NIH Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center, at Columbia University.
The Rudolph Leibel laboratory is working to isolate additional human and rodent genes that influence body weight and the susceptibility to diabetes mellitus type 2 in the context of obesity.
Rudolph Leibel was featured throughout HBO's The Weight of the Nation series in 2012 as a key scientific commentator.
Rudolph Leibel has been featured on numerous television news shows such as Charlie Rose, and is often featured in the popular press.