Dr. Koliwad is Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism and an investigator in the Diabetes Center at The University of California San Francisco, where he holds The Gerold Grodsky Professorship in Diabetes Research and the Mount Zion Health Fund Distinguished Professorship in Endocrinology. His group focuses on determining links between diet, nutrient metabolism, inflammation, and fibrosis in insulin-sensitive tissues, and how these links impact intermediary metabolism and both glucose and energy homeostasis. His group has made key discoveries regarding the biology of inflammation in tissues such as the fat, liver, brain, and vasculature that are important to normal physiology and also to the pathogenesis of obesity and consequent diseases such diabetes, steatohepatitis, and cardiovascular disease.

The goal is to identify ways to manipulate the crosstalk between tissue myeloid cells and their parenchymal neighbors, including progenitor cell populations, as a means to slow or halt the development of these diseases. To do so,  his group leverages cutting-edge tools to probe metabolic pathways modulating the inflammatory activity of peripheral macrophages, dendritic cells, hypothalamic microglia, and hepatic Kupffer cells. Additionally, the group focuses on probing the heterogeneity of stem-like cell populations in metabolic tissues. Dr. Koliwad’s group has also developed and is deeply characterizing a unique multi-ethnic cohort of lean and obese individuals in order to understand how adipose tissue inflammation and dysfunction drive fat distribution and metabolic disease progression in diverse human populations.

Clinically, Dr. Koliwad attends in the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Lipid Clinics at UCSF, where he teaches students, residents, nurses, and fellows how to care for challenging and underserved patients.