Joseph R. Vasselli, Ph.D.

CURRICULUM VITAE:

Dr. Vasselli is a biopsychologist whose primary research interest is mechanisms of appetite and body weight regulation. Currently, his work is focused on the role of the adipose tissue hormone leptin in this regulatory process, and in an understanding of leptin resistance, a state of reduced responsiveness to leptin which accompanies developing obesity. In addition, Dr. Vasselli has a longstanding interest in the development and testing of nutritional and pharmacological interventions for obesity and diabetes. Techniques used in his laboratory include hunger and palatability testing, adipose tissue biopsy and cellularity measurements, stereotaxic surgery, receptor binding and second messenger determinations, northern and western blotting techniques, and RIA and ELISA assays. Dr. Vasselli did his doctoral training in the Columbia University Psychology Department with Dr. Stephen C. Woods, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in behavioral neuroscience at Brooklyn College with Dr. Anthony Sclafani, and in endocrinology and nutrition at the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition with Dr. M.R.C. Greenwood. He began his independent research career at the Obesity Research Center under its original Director, Dr. Theodore Van Itallie, next did preclinical pharmacological research at Miles Pharmaceuticals, West Haven, CT (now Bayer, Inc.), and has since returned to academic research at the Obesity Center under its present Director, Dr. Pi-Sunyer. Currently Dr. Vasselli is Research Associate in the Department of Medicine at St. Luke's-Roosevelt HospitalCenter, and Lecturer at the Columbia University School of Public Health. He teaches in the graduate program at the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition, and lectures on obesity and body weight regulation at other institutions in the New York City area.

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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Obesity Research Center - Babcock-10
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
1111 Amsterdam Ave.
New York, NY 10025
Phone: (212) 523-3574 / 4164
FAX: (212) 523-3571 /4830
Email:jrv1@columbia.edu