ReachMD

Robert A. Rizza, M.D., Executive Dean for Research and Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Rizza studies the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism in humans. The long-term goal of Dr. Rizza's research team is to develop rational and effective therapies for the treatment and prevention of diabetes mellitus and its associated complications.

Dr. Rizza's team makes extensive use of isotopic dilution (stable and radioactive) techniques, indirect calorimetry, organ catheterization (hepatic, leg and forearm) and mathematical models.They also use glucose and insulin clamps, as well as computer-generated insulin and glucose infusion algorithms, to assess the impact of physiologic changes in glucose, insulin, glucagon, cortisol, incretins and various substrates (such as free fatty acids) on carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism in people with and without diabetes.

Dr. Rizza's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and American Diabetes Association, among other organizations.