Richard Kibbey named the Ralph H. Ensign Professor of Medicine
Richard Kibbey, who has discovered how mitochondria sense metabolism, was recently appointed the Ensign Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology and Metabolism) and Professor of Cellular & Molecular Physiology. The appointment is for a term of 10 years, renewable by the dean of the Yale School of Medicine (YSM).
He also serves as associate chief for research in the Section of Endocrinology and Associate Director of the Yale Program for Translational Biomedicine, and he is the newly appointed director of the Yale Program in Mitochondrial Biology & Intermediary Metabolism (MBIM).
A graduate of Trinity University, Kibbey earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in Cellular & Molecular Biophysics from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He came to Yale to train in internal medicine and as well as a clinical/research endocrine fellowship before joining the faculty in 2008.
During his fellowship he studied metabolism in the pathophysiology of Type 2 diabetes mellitus where he identified mitochondrial GTP as a metabolic signal in the mitochondria sensing flux in the pancreatic beta-cell as a crucial component of the signal to secrete insulin. From there, he discovered how phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) cycle reports and controls mitochondrial function. His laboratory has developed a novel platform using stable isotopes and mass spectrometry named Mass Isotopomer Multi Ordinate Spectral Analysis (MIMOSA) that measures the flow of metabolism inside and between tissues that is part of the Chemical Metabolism Core he directs.
Kibbey’s MBIM program, teaching, and laboratory have a focus on the relationship between nutrients, mitochondria and intermediary metabolism. His paradigm-shifting work in insulin secretion revealed how mitochondrial metabolic cycles are coordinated to signaling pathway that is linked to glucose metabolism in pancreatic beta-cells. His research and technical developments led to his scientific co-founding of a start-up biotech company, Elucidata, that uses artificial intelligence to analyze “big” omic data to develop new therapeutics for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
He continues to see patients at Yale Health and has an independent National Institutes of Health-supported laboratory doing research on islet and whole-body physiology in order to understand, prevent and treat Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases.
