John Dietschy, MD

Professor Emeritus
Internal Medicine

Contact Information

UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75390

john.dietschy@utsouthwestern.edu

Biography

John M. Dietschy, M.D., is the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Chair in Internal Medicine in Honor of Henry M. Winans, Sr., M.D., in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Dietschy received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. He completed his internship and residency training in internal medicine in Denver, Colorado. Subsequently, Dr. Dietschy served as a postdoctoral research fellow in gastroenterology at Boston University School of Medicine at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and then had additional training in lipid biochemistry and metabolism as a research fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern since 1965. He served as chief of the Division of Gastroenterology from 1979 to 1998 and as chief of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases from 1999-2002. His research has generally been in the area of regulation of cholesterol absorption and sterol metabolism. His recent research interests have involved the mechanism of action of a number of different ABC transporters on moving cholesterol across membranes, in newer pathways for bile acid synthesis and in understanding the mechanisms of regulation of cholesterol balance across the brain. He has authored more than 200 research publications in various professional journals including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Science, Neuroscience, Current Opinion in Lipidology and the Journal of Lipid Research.

Education

Medical SchoolUniversity of Washington (1958)
UndergraduateUniversity of Washington (1954)

Research Interests

Cholesterol metabolism
Heart disease
Lipoprotein metabolism
Malabsorption
Neurodegeneration

Publications

Featured
Regulation of absorption and ABC1 mediated efflux of cholesterol by RXR heterodimers

Repa, J.J., Turley, S.D., Lobaccaro, J.-M.A., Medina, J., Li, L., Lustig, K. Shan, B., Heyman, R.A., Dietschy, J.M., Mangelsdorf, D.J. , Science , 2000; (289):1524-1529

Featured
Role of liver in the maintenance of cholesterol and low density lipoprotein homeostasis in different animal species, including humans

Dietschy, J.M., Turley, S.D., and Spady, D.K. , J. Lipid Res. , 1993; (34):1637-1659

Featured
Regulation of plasma LDL-cholesterol levels by dietary cholesterol and fatty acids

Spady, D.K., Woollett, L.A. and Dietschy, J.M. , Annu. Rev. Nutr. , 1993; (13):355-381

Featured
Regulation of cholesterol metabolism. (In three parts)

Dietschy, J.M. and Wilson, J.D. , New Eng. J. Med. , 1970; (282):1128-1138, 1179-1183, 1241-1249

Featured
Mechanisms for the intestinal absorption of bile acids

Dietschy, J.M. , J. Lipid Res. , 1968; (9):297-309

Cholesterol substrate pools and steroid hormone levels are normal in the face of mutational inactivation of NPC1 protein

Xie C, Richardson JA, Turley SD, Dietschy JD , J. Lipid Res. , 2006; (47):953-963

Delineation of molecular changes in intrahepatic cholesterol metabolism resulting from diminished cholesterol absorption

Repa, J.J., Turley, S.D., Quan, G. and Dietschy, J.M. , J. Lipid Res. , 2005; (46):779-789

Molecular, anatomical and biochemical events associated with neurodegeneration in mice with Niemann-Pick type C disease

Li, H., Repa, J.J., Valasek, M.A., Beltroy, E., Turley, S.D., German, D.C. and Dietschy, J.M. , J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. , 2005; (64):323-333

Niemann-Pick C1 expression is not regulated by the amount of cholesterol flowing through cells in the mouse

Garver, W.S., Xie, C., Repa, J.J., Turley, S.D., Dietschy, J,M. , J. Lipid Res. , 2005; (46):1745-1754

Cholesterol accumulation and liver cell death in the mouse with Niemann-Pick type C disease.

Beltroy, E.P., Richardson, J.A., Horton, J.D., Turley, S.D., Dietschy, J.M. , Hepatology , 2005; (42):886-893

Honors/Awards

Janssen Award in Gastroenterology

Lifetime Achievement in Digestive Sciences (2001)

MERIT Award

National Institutes of Health (1995)

President

American Gastroenterological Association (1987)

McKenna Medal

Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (1985)

Heinrich-Wieland Prize in Lipid Biochemistry

University of Munich, Germany (1983)

Professional Associations/Affiliations

American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Federation for Clinical Research

American Gastroenterological Association

American Society for Clinical Investigation

Association for American Physicians