Christoph Buettner, MD, PhD

Christoph Buettner is a Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair for research in the Department of Medicine, and the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at RWJMS. He obtained his MD and PhD from Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich Germany in 1998, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School from 1997 to 1999, a residency in Internal Medicine at NYU (1999 to 2002), and a clinical fellowship in Endocrinology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2002 to 2004) where he stayed on as a junior faculty. He established his own laboratory at Mount Sinai in 2006 where he was most recently a Professor of Medicine. In 2020 he joined Rutgers. His basic research interests include the understanding of how hormones and nutrients are sensed by the hypothalamus and how the brain controls systemic metabolism, insulin action and inflammation. Further, how brain control of metabolism is impaired in obesity, diabetes, alcoholism, Alzheimer’s disease and stress, conditions characterized by insulin resistance and impaired glucose and energy homeostasis. His research aims to identify interventions to restore insulin action and glucose hemostasis. He has over 80 publications including those in high impact journals such as Nature Medicine, JCI, Science Translational Medicine and Cell Metabolism. His clinical interests are diabetes, obesity and general endocrinology. Dr. Buettner was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, has been awarded a Junior Faculty and a Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association, the Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Research Award, the Hirschl Award from the Hirschl Trust, Mount Sinai Endocrinologist of the Year, and received a KO8 development Award from NIDDK among other honors. Dr Buettner has reviewed grants for the NIH and several private and international foundations and has chaired the grant review for the American Diabetes Association. He has organized international meetings on metabolism and diabetes such as the Keystone meeting on role of organ crosstalk in metabolic regulation, and has chaired symposia from the ADA and the Endocrine Society.

Selected publications: 

  1. Hackl MT, Fürnsinn C, Schuh CM, Krssak M, Carli F, Guerra S, Freudenthaler A, Baumgartner-Parzer S, Helbich TH, Luger A, Zeyda M, Gastaldelli A, Buettner C, Scherer T. Nat Commun. 2019 Jun 20;10(1):2717. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10684-1. PMID: 31222048  
  1. Ryu V, Buettner C. Fat Cells gobbling up norepinephrine? PLoS Biol. 2019 Feb 7;17(2):e3000138. 2019 Feb. PMID: 30730909  
  1. Lee IT, Atuahene A, Egritag HE, Wang L, Donovan M, Buettner C, Geer EB. Active Cushing’s Disease is Characterized by Increased Adipose Tissue Macrophage Presence. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2019 Feb 4. PMID: 30722035 
  1. Moreno CL, Della Guardia L, Shnyder V, Ortiz-Virumbrales M, Kruglikov I, Zhang B, Schadt EE, Tanzi RE, Noggle S, Buettner C*, Gandy S*. iPSC-derived familial Alzheimer’s PSEN2 N141I cholinergic neurons exhibit mutation-dependent molecular pathology corrected by insulin signaling. Mol Neurodegener. 2018 Jun 26;13(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s13024-018-0265-5. PMID: 29945658. * Corresponding authors. 
  1. Arnold SE, Arvanitakis Z, Macauley-Rambach SL, Koenig AM, Wang HY, Ahima RS, Craft S, Gandy S, Buettner C, Stoeckel LE, Holtzman DM, Nathan DM. Brain insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer disease: concepts and conundrums. Nat Rev Neurol. 2018 Mar; 14(3):168-181. doi: 10.1038/nrneurol.2017.185. Epub 2018 Jan 29. Review. PMID: 29377010 
  1. Langlet F, Haeusler RA, Lindén D, Ericson E, Norris T, Johansson A, Cook JR, Aizawa K, Wang L, Buettner C, Accili D. Selective Inhibition of FOXO1 Activator/Repressor Balance Modulates Hepatic Glucose Handling. Cell. 2017 Nov 2; 171(4):824-835.e18. PMID: 29056338 
  1. Liu P, Ji Y, Yuen T, Rendina-Ruedy E, DeMambro VE, Dhawan S, Abu-Amer W, Izadmehr S, Zhou B, Shin AC, Latif R, Thangeswaran P, Gupta A, Li J, Shnayder V, Robinson ST, Yu YE, Zhang X, Yang F, Lu P, Zhou Y, Zhu LL, Oberlin DJ, Davies TF, Reagan MR, Brown A, Kumar TR, Epstein S, Iqbal J, Avadhani NG, New MI, Molina H, van Klinken JB, Guo EX, Buettner C, Haider S, Bian Z, Sun L, Rosen CJ, Zaidi M. Blocking FSH induces thermogenic adipose tissue and reduces body fat. Nature. 2017 Jun 1; 546(7656):107-112. PMID: 28538730 
  1. Fischer K, Ruiz HH, Jhun K, Finan B, Oberlin DJ, van der Heide V, Kalinovich AV, Petrovic N, Wolf Y, Clemmensen C, Shin AC, Divanovic S, Brombacher F, Glasmacher E, Keipert S, Jastroch M, Nagler J, Schramm KW, Medrikova D, Collden G, Woods SC, Herzig S, Homann D, Jung S, Nedergaard J, Cannon B, Tschöp MH, Müller TD, Buettner C. Alternatively activated macrophages are unable to synthesize catecholamines and do not contribute to adipose tissue adaptive thermogenesis. Nat Med 2017 23(5):623-630 PMID: 28414329 
  1. Shin AC, Filatova N, Lindtner C, Degann S, Chi T, Oberlin DJ, Buettner C. Insulin receptor signaling in POMC, but not AgRP, neurons controls adipose tissue insulin action.  Diabetes 2017 66(6):1560-1571. PMID: 28385803 
  1. Scherer T, Wolf P, Smajis S, Gaggini M, Hackl M, Gastaldelli A, Klimek P, Einwallner E, Marculescu R, Luger A, Fürnsinn C, Trattnig S, Buettner C, Krššák M, Krebs M. Chronic intranasal insulin does not affect hepatic lipids, but lowers circulating BCAAs in healthy male subjects. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2017 102(4):1325-1332 PMID: 28323986 
  1. La Merrill M, Sethi S, Benard L, Moshier E, Haraldsson B, & Buettner C (2016) Perinatal DDT exposure induces hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy in adult mice Environmental health perspectives. Environ Health Perspect. 124(11):1722-1727. 
  1. Ruiz HH, Chi T, Lindtner C, Hsieh W, Ehrlich M, Gandy S & Buettner C (2016) Increased Susceptibility to Metabolic Dysregulation in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease is Associated with Impaired Hypothalamic Insulin Signaling and Elevated BCAA Levels. Alzheimers & Dementia. 12(8):851-61. 
  1. Scherer T, Lindtner C, Hare JO, Hackl M, Zielinski E, Freudenthaler A, Baumgartner-Parzer S, Tödter K, Heeren J, Krššák M, Scheja L, Fürnsinn C & Buettner C (2016) Insulin regulates hepatic triglyceride secretion and lipid content via signaling in the brain. Diabetes. 65(6):1511-20. 
  1. Shin AC, Fasshauer M, Filatova N, Grundell LA, Zielinski E, Zhou JY, Scherer T, Lindtner C, White PJ, Lapworth AL, Ilkayeva O, Knippschild U, Wolf AM, Scheja L, Grove KL, Smith RD, Qian WJ, Lynch CJ, Newgard CB, Buettner, C. (2014) Brain Insulin Lowers Circulating BCAA Levels by Inducing Hepatic BCAA Catabolism. Cell Metab. pii: S1550-4131(14)00400-8. PMID: 25307860.* 
  1. La Merrill, M., Karey, E., Moshier, E., Lindtner, C., La Frano, M.R., Newman, J.W., and Buettner, C. (2014). Perinatal Exposure of Mice to the Pesticide DDT Impairs Energy Expenditure and Metabolism in Adult Female Offspring. PLoS One 9, e103337. PMID: 25076055.* 
  1. Iwen KA, Scherer T, Heni M, Sayk F, Wellnitz T, Machleidt F, Preissl H, Häring HU, Fritsche A, Lehnert H, Buettner C*, Hallschmid M* Intranasal insulin suppresses systemic but not subcutaneous lipolysis in healthy humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab.  2014 Feb; 99(2):E246-51. PMID: 24423295. PMCID: PMC3913807* corresponding authors. * 
  1. Eissing L, Scherer T, Todter K, Knippschild U, Greve JW, Buurman WA, Rensen SS, Wolf AM, Bartelt A, Heeren J, Pinnschmidt HO, Buettner C, Scheja L De novo lipogenesis in human fat and liver is linked to ChREBP-b and metabolic health. Nature Comm. 2013 Jan 23. PMID: 23443556 PMCID: PMC3740744. * 
  1. Lindtner C, Scherer T, Zielinski E, Filatova N, Fasshauer M, Tonks NK,Puchowicz M, Buettner C. Binge drinking induces whole-body insulin resistance by impairing hypothalamic insulin action. Sci Transl Med. 2013 Jan 30; 5(170):170ra14. PMID: 23363978 PMCID: PMC3740748. * 
  1. Scherer T, Lindtner C, Zielinski E, O’Hare J, Filatova N, Buettner C. Short–term voluntary overfeeding disrupts brain insulin control of adipose tissue lipolysis. J Biol Chem. 2012 287: 33061-33069. PMID: 22810223 PMCID: PMC3463338. *