Johan Auwerx

Impact

Johan Auwerx is a physician-scientist at EPFL in Lausanne, where he holds the Nestlé Chair in Energy Metabolism and leads the Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology. He uses molecular physiology and systems genetics to study metabolism in health, ageing and disease, in particular how diet, exercise and hormones control metabolism by changing the activity of transcription factors and their cofactors. According to his EPFL biography, his work contributed to the development of nuclear-receptor agonists into drugs now used for high blood lipids, fatty liver and type 2 diabetes, and he was among the first to recognise transcriptional cofactors as energy sensors and effectors of metabolic homeostasis; this work validated those cofactors as drug targets and spurred clinical use of natural compounds such as resveratrol to modulate their pathways. He co-founded several biotech companies, including Carex, PhytoDia and Mitobridge, a mitochondrial-therapeutics company acquired by Astellas in 2017. He trained as an MD and PhD in molecular endocrinology at KU Leuven and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington. He was elected to EMBO in 2003, and his awards include the Prix Marcel Benoist (2016), the EASD Minkowski Prize and the Danone International Prize for Nutrition.

Metrics

• h-index 205 · google scholar as of 2026-09-23 source ↗
• h-index 205 · google scholar as of 2026-09-23 source ↗
• USD 45M raised by Mitobridge as of 2026-09-23 source ↗

Research output

912 works · 130,088 citations · h-index 184 OpenAlex ↗

Selected publications

• Resveratrol Improves Mitochondrial Function and Protects against Metabolic Disease by Activating SIRT1 and PGC-1α ↗ 2006 · 4,042 citations
• AMPK regulates energy expenditure by modulating NAD+ metabolism and SIRT1 activity ↗ 2009 · 3,305 citations
• Bile acids induce energy expenditure by promoting intracellular thyroid hormone activation ↗ 2006 · 2,234 citations
• Sirtuins as regulators of metabolism and healthspan ↗ 2012 · 2,027 citations
• TGR5-Mediated Bile Acid Sensing Controls Glucose Homeostasis ↗ 2009 · 1,863 citations

Links

Research fields