Alan R. Shuldiner received his BA degree (Chemistry) from Lafayette College (1979) and his MD degree from Harvard Medical School (1984). He was a resident in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and a Medical and Senior Staff Fellow in Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Diabetes Branch at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Shuldiner is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and Metabolism. In 1991, he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology as an Assistant Professor, and in 1993, was promoted to Associate Professor. In 1997, he was recruited to the University of Maryland as Professor and Head of the Division of Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition in the Department of Medicine. In 1999, the Division of Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition and the Division of Endocrinology were combined and Dr. Shuldiner assumed the leadership of the newly named Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition. Under Dr. Shuldiner’s leadership, the University of Maryland’s endocrinology and diabetes program has obtained a national and international reputation. U.S. News and World Report has recognized the University of Maryland within the top 40 endocrine programs. The Division now has 22 full-time faculty and a research budget of $10 million annually. Dr. Shuldiner is also a Core Investigator at the Geriatric Research and Education Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Baltimore Veterans Administration Medical Center and Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Shuldiner is the recipient of several academic distinctions including the Soma Weiss Award of the Harvard Medical Society, Nettie and David Finkle Scholar Award in Health Sciences and Technology from Harvard Medical School, Mallinckrodt Foundation Scholar Award, and Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar Award. In 2005, he won the Founder’s Day Researcher of the Year Award, an award given to one of the 1600 full time faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore for excellence in research. He is also the 2005 recipient of the Mosenthaf Award of the American Diabetes Association. He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international symposia and meetings, is an Associate Editor of the journals Diabetes and Endocrinology, a reviewer for several journals, and has served on several NIH study sections and advisory committees, including the NIH Advisory Panel on Exceptional Longevity.

Dr. Shuldiner’s major research interests are in the molecular basis and genetics of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance. He has published over 130 original articles and 50 review articles. His studies of type 2 diabetes candidate genes include studies in African Americans, Pima Indians, Mexican Americans, and Caucasians. His group was the first to discover a common mutation in the beta-3-adrenergic receptor (Trp64Arg) that influences several features of the insulin resistance syndrome, including insulin resistance, obesity, and visceral fat accumulation. His group was also the first to describe a common variant in the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma-2 gene (Pro12Ala PPAR_2), which associates with obesity, increased insulin sensitivity and protection from type 2 diabetes. Most recently, his group has utilized genome scan/positional cloning approaches to identify several chromosomal regions that are likely to harbor susceptibility genes for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and hyperlipidemia in the Old Order Amish. These studies in the Amish have recently been expanded to include genetic studies of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, autoimmune thyroid disease, and longevity. Dr. Shuldiner has broad-based financial support for his research including NIH, American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Ellison Foundation, and biotech/pharmaceuticals.