David Hershel Alpers is a gastroenterologist, researcher, professor, and former president of the American Gastroenterological Association (1990–1991).
from Harvard Medical School in 1960 and completed training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
He studied molecular biology at the National Institute of Health under Gordon Tomkins (1962–64) before returning to MGH for gastroenterology fellowship (1964–66) and junior faculty positions (1966–69).
His efforts are also responsible for much of our knowledge of cobalamin (vitamin B12) metabolism and absorption by the gastrointestinal tract.
His longstanding interests in the psychiatric aspects of gastrointestinal disease helped formulate some of the current thinking about brain-gut interactions.