December NORC Affiliate Investigator Spotlight: Alyssa Huang, MD

Dr. Alyssa Huang was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She completed a dual major in neuroscience and psychology at Northwestern University, her medical degree at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and her Pediatric Residency at Los Angeles County – University of Southern California Medical Center. She subsequently completed her pediatric endocrinology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco where she investigated how macronutrients affect the brain and feeding behavior in mouse models of obesity. In 2019, she joined University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Division of Endocrinology. Her most formative moments have been treating pediatric patients struggling with obesity and diabetes. She subsequently helped establish the Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes Clinic in the summer of 2021 and serves as the Co-Medical Director of the Insulin Resistance (focused on pediatric obesity and prediabetes) and the Type 2 Diabetes Clinics and provides care in the Adolescent and Young Adult Diabetes Clinic. Dr. Huang joined the Brain, Body, Appetite Collaborative (BBARC) in 2021 to pursue her research interests in understanding the complex relationship between the brain, feeding behavior and development of obesity and diabetes in children and adolescents.

“My long-term career goal is to improve the lives and health of children with obesity and metabolic disease like type 2 diabetes. To this end, my research focuses on understanding the brain’s role in the pathogenesis of obesity and metabolic disease in youth. I received funding to complete a pilot and feasibility study through the University of Washington Diabetes Research Center and supplemental funding through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases in 2021. The aim of this project is to elucidate the relationship of obesity, glycemic control, and structural changes in the hypothalamus (a key area for weight regulation and feeding behavior) in adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes. I have also received funding through the Seattle Children’s Hospital Clinical Research Scholars program to expand neuroimaging studies to youth with general obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes to understand if there are structural alterations in the hypothalamus that contribute to disordered eating behavior and poor glycemic control.

I am an investigator in the Brain, Body, and Appetite Research Collaborative (BBARC).  The UW NORC services I have used for my research have been the Biostatistics Subcore and the Clinical and Translational Research Services Core’s Neuroimaging and Study Implementation Services on the Clinical Research Unit (CRU).”

To learn more about Dr. Huang’s research publications, click here

Visit Dr. Huang’s webpage