Bret H. Goodpaster, PhD

Bret Goodpaster, Ph.D. investigates the pathophysiology of human aging, obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes, and the biological mechanisms underlying the health benefits of exercise. Dr. Goodpaster has received a number of awards and honors for his work, including the Nathan Shock Award from the National Institute of Aging in 2008. He is particularly well known for “the athlete’s paradox” which has shifted the paradigm in type 2 diabetes research to investigate, how and why does fat accumulation in muscle cause insulin resistance in some subjects but not others? Which are the good fats and which are the bad fats? Dr. Goodpaster has published >250 peer-reviewed papers, review articles and book chapters, has served on several Editorial Boards, and is currently an Associate Editor for Diabetologia. He has served on grant review panels for the NIH and the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Goodpaster obtained a B.S. in Biology from Purdue, and after completing a Pre-doctoral Fellowship at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, received his Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics from Ball State University. Prior to coming to the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute, he was Professor of Medicine and UPMC Chair for Diabetes and Metabolism Research at the University of Pittsburgh.