Michael Cowley

Michael Cowley is an Australian physiologist. He is best known for his mapping of the neural circuits involved in metabolism and obesity and diabetes treatment. He is a professor in the Department of Physiology at Monash University in the Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences. He is also a director of the Australian diabetes drug development company, Verva Inc, and director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute.

Cowley is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a Veski Innovation Fellow and, in 2009, was awarded The Australian Science Minister's Prize for Australian Life Scientist of the Year. In 2014 Cowley was the recipient of the inaugural Jacques Miller Medal for Experimental BioMedicine from the Australian Academy of Science. Cowley's work has mapped the neural circuits in the brain that sense nutrients and fat to control appetite and body weight. He has published more than 75 papers and chapters, is the inventor of 85 patents, and the co-founder of Orexigen Therapeutics, a publicly listed (NASDAQ: OREX) San Diego biotech company, where he served as the chief scientific officer until December 2008, when he returned to Monash University. Provided by Wikipedia