ALEXANDER R. NECTOW, MD PhD

Biography

Alexander R. Nectow is a clinician-scientist on the faculty of Columbia University's Department of Medicine, in the Division of Cardiology. He received his B.S. in Engineering Science and his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University, and his Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University in 2015, where he developed cell type-specific molecular profiling tools and used them to identify the dorsal raphe nucleus as a key node controlling appetite. In 2016, Alex started his independent research group as a CV Starr Fellow at Princeton's Princeton Neuroscience Institute, where his lab identified a brainstem mechanism for the control of thermogenesis. He joined the Columbia faculty in the Department of Medicine in 2019. From 2017 to 2025, Alex ran his lab while completing his MD at Columbia (2020), an internal medicine residency through the clinician-scientist pathway (2020–2022), and a clinical fellowship in cardiology (2022–2025) at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia – nearly a decade as a simultaneous principal investigator and clinical trainee. He is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology, and attends as a cardiologist on the inpatient service at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.

Alex's lab has established the dorsal raphe nucleus as a new center in the brain's control of feeding and energy homeostasis. The group has identified defined dorsal raphe and adjacent brainstem cell populations whose activity drives food intake and energy expenditure using cell type-specific molecular profiling and circuit dissection tools, many developed in the lab. Together, this work has established new principles for the neural control of feeding at the cell type and circuit level. The lab now runs two active programs: continued mechanistic work on the neural control of energy balance, and a newer effort on the brain-heart axis – the central afferent and efferent circuits that govern cardiac physiology, and their contributions to arrhythmia and other cardiovascular disease.

Alex's work has been recognized by awards from The Rockefeller University (David Rockefeller Fellowship), Princeton University (CV Starr Fellowship), and Columbia University (Titus Munson Coan Prize, Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholar Award). He has also recently been a recipient of the Emerging-Generation Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Glorney-Raisbeck Junior Faculty Award from the New York Academy of Medicine, the Innovative Basic Science Award and Pathway to Stop Diabetes Accelerator Award from the American Diabetes Association, and the Young Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD).