People
The co-directors and collaborators of VCOTT, the Vanderbilt Collaborative for Obesity Trials and Translational science.
Co-directors
Jason M. Samuels, MD, FACS
Jason M. Samuels, MD, FACS, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and co-director of VCOTT, where he directs the clinical trials portfolio. He is a bariatric and minimally invasive surgeon whose research focuses on combining and personalizing surgical and pharmacologic treatment of obesity, including GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy before and after bariatric surgery. He leads investigator-initiated trials in this area, holds an NIH career development award (K23), co-chairs the Research Committee of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and is an Epic Physician Builder at VUMC. Dr. Samuels received his MD from the University of Oklahoma, completed general surgery residency at the University of Colorado and fellowship training in advanced GI, minimally invasive, and bariatric surgery at Vanderbilt, and is completing an MPH in Epidemiology at Vanderbilt.
Charles Robert Flynn, PhD
Charles Robert (Robb) Flynn, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and co-director of VCOTT, where he directs the translational science arm. A biochemist and molecular biologist, he studies how bariatric surgery and caloric restriction reprogram metabolism in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease, with particular focus on bile acid signaling and the gut microbiota. His group combines human tissue obtained at bariatric surgery with surgical, genetic, and pharmacologic models, using mass spectrometry (proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics) and isotope tracer methods. He is a multiple principal investigator on an NIH R01 examining gut microbiota-related mechanisms of colorectal cancer risk after bariatric surgery, and has served on numerous NIH review panels. Dr. Flynn received his BS in biochemistry from Montana State University and his PhD in molecular biology from Arizona State University, where he also completed postdoctoral training.
Collaborators
Mona Mashayekhi, MD, PhD
Mona Mashayekhi, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her research examines how chronic inflammation in people with obesity contributes to cardiometabolic disease, including heart disease and diabetes, and her clinical focus is gestational diabetes and other endocrine disorders of pregnancy. She received her MD and PhD from Washington University in St. Louis and completed internal medicine residency, including a year as Chief Resident, and endocrinology fellowship at Vanderbilt.
Jinyi Zhu, PhD, MPH
Jinyi Zhu, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Her research develops and applies methods to inform how resources are allocated in public health and health care, including prioritizing the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, model-based cost-effectiveness analysis, and methodological advances in disease simulation modeling. She received her PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University, her MPH from Yale University, and degrees in biology and economics from Peking University.