About Us

The Multidisciplinary Postdoctoral Training Program in Basic Diabetes Research Program is led by Ormond MacDougald, PhD, Principal Investigator, and Peter Arvan, MD, PhD, who are supported by a diverse group of mentors who come from a variety of schools, departments, and divisions at Michigan Medicine.

Program Leadership

Ormond MacDougald, PhD

Ormond MacDougald, PhD, John A. Faulkner Collegiate Professor of Physiology, is a Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Professor of Internal Medicine. Dr. MacDougald received his undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and his master’s degree and a doctorate from the Department of Physiology at Michigan State University. Dr. MacDougald pursued postdoctoral training from in the Department of Biological Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, where he began his studies on adipocyte biology with M. Daniel Lane, PhD.

Dr. MacDougald is an internationally recognized investigator for his work on metabolism and adipocyte (fat cell) differentiation - the process by which a less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type.

Visit Dr. MacDougald's Lab.

Peter Arvan, MD, PhD 

Peter Arvan, MD, PhD, William K. and Delores S. Brehm Professor of Diabetes Research, is the Chief of the Metabolism, Endocrinology, & Diabetes Division, Professor of Internal Medicine, and Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Dr. Arvan received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University and his medical and PhD degrees from Yale University. Following residency training in internal medicine, Dr. Arvan completed fellowship training in endocrinology at Yale. Dr. Arvan then joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1988. He moved to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 1996 and became Division Chief at the Michigan Medicine in 2003.

Dr. Arvan's research work has focused on hormone synthesis, especially in two areas: thyroid hormone synthesis and insulin synthesis. He is specifically interested in understanding how the proteins that are hormone precursors are made and converted into medically-active hormones, and how these steps go wrong in various endocrine diseases.

Visit Dr. Arvan's Lab.