Associate Professor Alex Viardot

Associate Professor Alex Viardot is a clinical endocrinologist trained in Switzerland. He moved to Australia to start at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in 2004, and undertook a PhD from 2006-2008 in the Diabetes & Obesity Research Program (Garvan, UNSW).

After his PhD, Alex was awarded the Don Chisholm Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2008, which allowed him to continue his work at Garvan for another year. From 2010-2013, he was supported by an NHMRC overseas-based Clinical Research Fellowship, which enabled him to spend two years at Imperial College in London.

Alex returned to Garvan in 2012, and since then has had a consultant position within the Department of Endocrinology at St Vincent’s Hospital. He continues to do research at Garvan as a group leader in the field of Prader-Willi Syndrome and Genetic Forms of Diabetes.

His area of research includes exploring the interface between the metabolic disturbances found in obesity and type 2 diabetes and the immune system, abnormalities in gut hormone secretion, and exploring early defects in pre-diabetes, which could narrow down the disease mechanism in the hope that this progression can be stopped with targeted interventions in future. Further areas include dietary approaches to prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes, as well as appetite deregulation in people with Prader-Willi syndrome and exploring novel potential treatments.

He is leading his own research group aiming at further exploring the defects in metabolism and appetite regulation in Prader-Willi Syndrome, and he has started to introduce Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) into the clinical setting to offer a precise and cost-effective tool in the diagnostic of monogenic forms of diabetes.