Biography

Ted D. Adams, PhD, MPH, is is currently an adjunct professor in the Genetic Epidemiology Research Program within the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine. He has previously been associated with the Division of Cardiovascular Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine and Division of Epidemiology University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. His earlier research focused on isolating genes related to human obesity. Through funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), DNA and anthropometric data were collected on 450 families who exhibited a high prevalence of severe obesity (pedigrees represented over 6,000 participants).

In relation to this research, Adams and colleagues began the Utah Obesity Study. This research effort (NIDDK funded) has explored the long-term mortality and cancer outcomes of patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery. In addition, this funding supported a long-term (12-year) prospective study of patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery, matched to patients seeking gastric bypass but did not have surgery, and randomly matched subjects not seeking weight loss surgery. This prospective study explored clinical outcomes such as weight loss, diabetes, blood pressure, lipids, and quality of life.

More recently, funding from Ethicon Endo-Surgery (J&J), NIH, and Division of Epidemiology University of Utah has been used to analyze up to 40 years of follow-up of mortality, cancer, and fracture risk in bariatric surgery patients. He has previously served as a member of the NIH Task Force for Bariatric Surgery, the NIH-NIDDK study review section for the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS), and as a member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the Teen Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery study (Teen-LABS, NIDDK funded).

He has enjoyed supervising graduate students over the years. He holds special appreciation for the many families and individuals who have willingly participated in several research projects related to a better understanding of human obesity and of the treatment of severe obesity through bariatric surgery.