Michael P. Czech is the Isadore and Fannie Foxman Professor of Medical Research and founding Chair of the Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School. Molecular Medicine currently includes 36 faculty research laboratories and several Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. His research addresses mechanisms of signal transduction and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes and obesity. His laboratory has recently developed RNAi- and CRISPR-based nanoparticles to discover novel drug targets and therapeutic strategies for alleviating metabolic disease. Czech earned a PhD degree in biochemistry in 1972 at Brown University and completed postdoctoral study at Duke University Medical Center. He became Assistant Professor at Brown in 1974, rising to the rank of Professor in 1980. In 1981, he moved to the University of Massachusetts Medical School as Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology until his appointment as Director of Molecular Medicine in 1989. Czech has served on several editorial boards and NIH Study Sections and is a member of the Scientific Review Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has received the Scientific Achievement Award (1982), the Banting Medal (2000) and the Albert Renold Award for mentorship (2004) from the American Diabetes Association; the David Rumbough Scientific Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (1985); NIH MERIT Awards, 1997-2005 and 2012-2021; the Elliot P. Joslin Medal (1998), and the Jacobaeus Prize awarded in Umea, Sweden in 2009.
