About Scott Summers
Scott Summers, PhD
Distinguished Professor and Chair
Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology
Co-Director, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center
William J. Rutter, PhD, Presidential Endowed Chair in Biochemistry
University of Utah
Dr. Summers is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology at the University of Utah, the Co-Director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center, and the William J. Rutter Presidential Endowed Chair of Biochemistry. He has been a leading voice advancing the idea that ceramides, which are products of fat and protein metabolism that accrue in dyslipidemia or inflammation, contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications in the heart, liver, gut, and kidney. Though the idea was initially controversial, the role of ceramides as drivers of pathology is now widely accepted and clinics have started measuring ceramides as a means of assessing disease risk. In 2015, he co-founded Centaurus Therapeutics, a USA-based biotechnology company that is developing new ceramide-lowering therapeutics to combat the metabolic underpinnings of metabolic disorders.
Prior to joining the University of Utah, Dr. Summers held faculty appointments at Duke University and its affiliated medical school in Singapore (Duke-NUS); the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia; and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. He completed his BS at Indiana University, his PhD at Southern Illinois University, and his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania.