Makoto Ishii, M.D., Ph.D.

Joined UT Southwestern: 2023

Dr. Makoto Ishii is a board-certified neurologist and a physician-scientist dedicated to both patient care and biomedical research focusing primarily on neurodegenerative and neuroendocrine disorders.

Research: Dr. Ishii is interested in understanding the bidirectional relationship between brain function and systemic metabolism with an emphasis on metabolic deficits in Alzheimer’s disease and how it differs from normal aging. Our laboratory focuses on generating hypotheses derived from open questions in clinical neurology and neuroendocrinology, testing these hypotheses using molecular genetics and neuroscience techniques in the laboratory, and verifying these findings in clinically relevant human research studies.

Background: Dr. Ishii was raised in Houston and earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. He then enrolled in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program in New York City receiving his PhD from Rockefeller University and his MD from Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his clinical training as a neurology resident at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he was also chief resident. After his residency, Dr. Ishii joined the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College and received a Leon Levy Neuroscience Fellowship to conduct his initial research studies, which were the first to demonstrate that amyloid-beta, a major pathogenic factor in Alzheimer’s disease, can disrupt specific brain cells in the leptin pathway, an essential regulator of body weight, leading to body weight and metabolic deficits prior to any cognitive dysfunction.  Dr. Ishii moved back to Texas to join the faculty at UT Southwestern in 2023.

Awards: Based on his early achievements at Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr. Ishii was awarded the Paul B. Beeson Clinical Development Award in Aging, an honor supported by the National Institute on Aging (part of the NIH) and private foundations including the American Federation for Aging Research and The John A. Hartford Foundation, where he joins past recipients who are currently top academic leaders in the field.