Education

  • BS, Biology, Coastal Carolina University, 2003
  • PhD, Physiology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, 2009
  • MD, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, 2011
  • Residency, General Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2011-2019
  • Postdoctoral Research Training, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 2014-2017
  • Postdoctoral Clinical Training, Advanced Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, 2019-2020

  • Diplomate, American Board of Surgery, 2019
  • Diplomate, American Board of Obesity Medicine, 2024
  • Focused Practice Designation in Metabolic/Bariatric Surgery, American Board of Surgery, 2024

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Dr. Albaugh earned his medical degree (MD) from Penn State University College of Medicine and completed his surgical residency at Vanderbilt University. He subsequently completed surgical fellowship training in Advanced Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgery at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic. He serves as Assistant Professor of Metabolic Surgery at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Louisiana State University in the Department of Biological Sciences, as well as Assistant Professor of Surgery at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He currently has surgical privileges at Our Lady of the Lake-St. Elizabeth, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, as well as Baton Rouge General and Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge.

Dr. Albaugh is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery (DABS) and has also completed the Focused Practice Designation in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (FPMBS). He also serves nationally on committee for the American Board of Surgery as a metabolic/bariatric surgeon. In addition to his surgical board certifications, he is board certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine (DABOM). 

Aside from his clinical and surgical work, Dr. Albaugh has completed extensive scientific training, earning his PhD in the physiology of metabolism and body weight regulation while at Penn State. During his surgical residency, he completed a postdoctoral scientific fellowship sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in surgical metabolism and metabolic surgery. 

Dr. Albaugh’s research interests include various clinical and preclinical studies working to better understand how food and nutrients are sensed within the gastrointestinal tract and how weight loss treatments (e.g. semaglutide/tirzepatide, Bariatric Surgery) alter the communication between the gut and the brain. The overarching goal of his research program is to better understand the “gut-brain axis,” ultimately leading to the development of new and effective treatments and cures for people with diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disease. His research has been supported by the American Medical Association, National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). Dr. Albaugh is the co-author of >100 scientific articles, book chapters, invited editorials, and scientific and surgical reviews.

 

Learn more: Metamor Institute

Selected Publications

  1. Flynn CR, Albaugh VL, Cai S, Cheung-Flynn J, Adcock J, Chen S, Williams PE, Brucker RM, Bordenstein SR, Wasserman DH, Abumrad NN. Bile diversion to the distal small intestine has comparable metabolic benefits to bariatric surgery. Nature Communications 2015 6:7715. (PMCID: PMC4518285)
  2. Albaugh VL, Flynn CR, Cai S, Xiao Y, Tamboli RA, Abumrad NN. Early increases in plasma bile acids post Roux-en-Y gastric bypass are driven by insulin sensitizing, secondary bile acids. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2015 100(9): E1225-1233 (PMCID: PMC4570157)
  3. Tamboli RA, Sidani RM, Garcia AE, Antoun J, Isbell JM, Albaugh VL, Abumrad NN. Jejunal administration of glucose enhances acyl ghrelin suppression in obese humans. American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism 2016 Jul 1;311(1):E252-9. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00082.2016. Epub 2016 Jun 7. (PMCID: PMC4967145).
  4. Tamboli RA, Antoun J, Sidani RM, Clements BA, Eckert EA, Marks-Shulman P, Williams DB, Clements RH, Albaugh VL, Abumrad NN. Metabolic responses to exogenous ghrelin in obesity and early after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in humans. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 2017 Mar 27. doi: 10.1111/dom.12952. (PMCID: PMC5568950).
  5. Reddy IA, Erreger K, Ghose D, Saunders C, Turner BD, Poe A, Albaugh VL, Hackett TA, Grueter BA, Abumrad NN, Flynn CR, Galli A. Bile Diversion, a bariatric surgery, reduces central cocaine reward through altering circulating bile acids. PLoS Biology 2018; 16(7):e2006682 (PMID: 30048457).
  6. Albaugh VL, Banan B, Antoun J, Xiong Y, Guo Y, Ping J, Alikhan M, Clements AB, Abumrad NN, Flynn CR. Role of Bile Acids and GLP-1 in Mediating the Metabolic Improvements of Bariatric Surgery. Gastroenterology 2019; 156(4):1041-1051.e4. (PMCID: PMC6409186)
  7. Flynn CR, Albaugh VL, Tamboli RA, Bosompem A, Sidani RM, Winnick JJ. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery improves hepatic glucose metabolism and reduces plasma Kisspeptin levels in morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes. American Journal of Physiology: Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology 2019 Nov 11. doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00224.2019 (PMID: 31709832)
  8. Zhang JB, Tamboli RA, Albaugh VL, Grijalva CG, Abumrad NN, Shibao CA. The Incidence of Orthostatic Intolerance After Bariatric Surgery. Obesity Science & Practice 2019;6(1):76–83. Published 2019 Dec 6. doi:10.1002/osp4.383 (PMCID: PMC7042102)
  9. Albaugh VL, Flynn CR, Tamboli RA, Abumrad NN. Recent Advances in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. F1000Research 2016 May 24;5. pii: F1000 Faculty Rev-978. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.7240.1. eCollection 2016. Invited Review. (PMCID: PMC4879937).
  10. Albaugh VL, Banan B, Ajouz H, Abumrad NN, Flynn CR. Bile acids and bariatric surgery. Molecular Aspects of Medicine 2017 Apr 5. pii: S0098-2997(16)30118-2. doi: 10.1016/j.mam.2017.04.001. (PMCID: PMC5603298)
  11. Albaugh VL and Abumrad NN. Surgical Treatment of Obesity. F1000Research 2018, 7(F1000 Faculty Rev):617 (doi: 10.12688/f1000research.13515.1) (PMID: 29904577)
  12. Albaugh VL, Schauer PR, Aminian A. How the Sleeve Works (Metabolically). In: The Perfect Sleeve Gastrectomy: A Clinical Guide to Evaluation, Treatment, and Techniques. 1st Edition. Eds. Gagner M., Cardoso A., Palermo M., Noel P., Nocca D. Springer, Cham.
  13. English WJ and Albaugh VL. Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. In: Primary Care Obesity. 1st Edition. Eds. Kushner, Bessesen, and Tsai. (in press)

PubMed Bibliography