Alastair “Al” Garfield serves as our Head of Research, having joined Rhythm in 2017. Al is responsible for our internal research strategy. He leads a multi-disciplinary scientific organization that unites our expertise in the neurobiology of the MC4R-pathway and the genetics of obesity to deepen understanding and advance our clinical development pipeline. Al is recognized as a leading expert on the MC4R-pathway and the neurogenetics of body weight, having worked in this space for over a decade. Prior to joining Rhythm, Al was a lab head in Pfizer’s Cardiovascular Metabolic Disease Research Unit, where he led target identification and validation efforts for the Eating Disorders group. Al joined Pfizer from Harvard Medical School, where he was a Visiting Professor, from his position as Assistant Professor at the University of Edinburgh, UK. During this time, Al’s independent research was focused on the hypothalamic neural networks governing body weight, appetite, and metabolism. His postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, UK, focused on the MC4R-pathway and its links to obesity and rare genetic obesity disorders such as Prader-Willi Syndrome. Al holds a degree in molecular and cellular biology and a Ph.D. in developmental genetics from the University of Bath, UK. He has authored numerous papers on the MC4R-pathway, among them publications in Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, and Cell Metabolism.
Now FDA Approved
