Kevin Williams

Dr. Kevin Williams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Center for Hypothalamic Research. He joined UT Southwestern in 2009 after completing postdoctoral training there following a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Tulane University and a B.S. in Biology (cum laude) from the University of Texas at Dallas.

His research focuses on neural circuits controlling feeding behavior, energy expenditure, and glucose metabolism, with an emphasis on endoplasmic reticulum stress, exercise-induced neuroplasticity, and metabolic disease mechanisms. Key projects include studying ER stress pathways in obesity, neuronal responses to exercise, and GLP-1 signaling in metabolic regulation.

Dr. Williams has received the 2019 Timothy Bartness Award and serves as Associate Editor of Diabetes. His lab actively collaborates internationally, with ongoing studies involving visiting researchers from China and Korea. Current projects explore therapeutic targets for obesity and diabetes through advanced techniques like optogenetics and CRISPR-Cas9.

• Education: Ph.D. Neuroscience (Tulane University), B.S. Biology (UT Dallas, cum laude)
• Key Lab Members: Linh Lieu (Lab Manager), Eun-Sang Hwang (Postdoc), Briana Wallace, Anita Kabahizi, Bryan Portillo
• Lab Affiliations: Center for Hypothalamic Research, Touchstone Diabetes Center

Notable achievements include identifying TRPC5’s role in leptin signaling and demonstrating exercise’s impact on hypothalamic plasticity. His work bridges basic neuroscience with translational medicine, targeting metabolic disorders through novel neural mechanisms.