Peter Crawford, MD, PhD
Multi-PI, Deputy Director, and Clinical Translational Research Services (CTRS) core Director
Dr. Peter Crawford serves as CTSI’s Deputy Director and also directs CTSI’s Clinical Translational Research Services (CTRS) core. As Deputy Director, Dr. Crawford has oversight for CTSI’s Office of Discovery and Translation (ODAT) and works closely with CTSI’s executive leadership team to oversee the institute’s operations and achieve excellence in clinical research.
In his CTRS Director role, Dr. Crawford oversees research support teams that provide a wide range of services and expert consultations to support clinical and translational research, which includes the Biostatistical Design and Analysis Center (BDAC), the Biorepository Laboratory Services (BLS), the Clinical Research Support Center (CRSC), Regulatory Support, the Workforce Development Program, and the Recruitment Center.
Dr. Crawford is a Professor and the Vice Dean for Research for the University of Minnesota Medical School. He also serves as the director for the Department of Medicine’sDivision of Molecular Medicine. As a CTSA Multi-PI and Vice Dean for Research in the Medical School, Dr. Crawford has the vantage point and authority to identify and foster strong synergies in clinical and translational research infrastructure and support across CTSI and the University's six health science schools.
Dr. Crawford’s research program focuses on the interplay between intermediary metabolism and the processes of obesity and cardiovascular disease. To do this, his lab studies human participants and leverages novel genetic mouse models to develop new perspectives of how metabolism adapts in obesity, diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cardiomyopathy; how these adaptations ultimately prove deleterious; and how personalized nutritional and pharmacological therapies may mitigate these adverse responses. His program focuses heavily on the development of students, fellows, and early-career faculty.
Dr. Crawford received his MD and PhD from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he also completed an Internal Medicine Residency and Clinical Cardiology and Postdoctoral Fellowships. He joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2017 and served as vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine from 2018–2023.