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Robert V. Farese Jr., M.D.

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Overview
Robert Farese, Jr., is Chair and Professor of the Department of Molecular Metabolism at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, where he has run a laboratory jointly with Dr. Tobias Walther since 2014. Dr. Farese earned a B.S. in chemistry at the University of Florida and an M.D. at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He trained in medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and completed a research fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco and the Gladstone Institutes.

Dr. Farese serves on the board of the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). He has received numerous honors, including election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, the Bristol-Myers Squibb “Freedom to Discover Award”, and the Avanti Award in Lipids.

Research

The Farese-Walther laboratory studies cellular lipid and energy metabolism, in particular the mechanisms and physiology of neutral lipid synthesis and storage in lipid droplets. More broadly, the lab investigates the mechanisms by which cells regulate the abundance of lipids, how they store lipids to buffer fluctuations in their availability, and how these processes function in membrane biology and cell physiology.

Dr. Farese has made important contributions to our understanding of lipid metabolism. His laboratory discovered genes that encode enzymes critical for neutral lipid metabolism, including the DGAT enzymes which mediate triglyceride (TG) synthesis. Excessive accumulation of TGs underlies obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and other metabolic diseases. Since 2007, Dr. Farese’s laboratory has studied the role of lipid metabolism in the central nervous system, particularly in neurodegenerative disorders such as Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).

Research
The research activities and funding listed below are automatically derived from NIH ExPORTER and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing items. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
  1. R01GM141050 (FARESE, ROBERT V) Apr 1, 2021 - Jan 31, 2025
    NIH
    Lipotoxic Protective Response of the Endoplasmic Reticulum
    Role: Principal Investigator
  2. R13DK126215 (FARESE, ROBERT V) Jul 1, 2020 - Jun 30, 2021
    NIH
    FASEB's The Lipid Droplets Conference
    Role: Principal Investigator
  3. R01DK124913 (WALTHER, TOBIAS) Apr 1, 2020 - Feb 28, 2025
    NIH
    Lipid Droplets and Transcriptional Regulation of Metabolism
    Role: Co-Principal Investigator
  4. R01GM124348 (FARESE, ROBERT V) Sep 1, 2017 - Jul 31, 2025
    NIH
    Mechanisms of Lipid Droplet Formation
    Role: Principal Investigator
  5. R13HL123268 (FARESE, ROBERT V) Jun 10, 2014 - May 31, 2015
    NIH
    2014 Lipoprotein Metabolism Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Semina
    Role: Principal Investigator

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Funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, grant number UL1TR002541.