Biography

Dr. Darius A. Schneider is a board-certified endocrinologist and physician-scientist, and the President and Medical Director of Diabetes & Endocrine Specialists. He sees patients in La Jolla, La Mesa and Poway, leads the practice’s interventional endocrinology program, San Diego Interventional Endocrinology, and directs EndoTrials Clinical Research Center.

He earned his MD and his PhD (magna cum laude) at the University of Giessen (Justus Liebig University), Germany, where his doctoral research examined blood-vessel formation in pancreatic islets and its role in islet transplantation. He trained in internal medicine at Heidelberg University and at the University of California, San Diego. As a Fulbright scholar at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology he studied the immunology of type 1 diabetes, and he completed fellowship training in endocrinology, diabetology, metabolism and nutrition at Heidelberg University and at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he took part in the TEDDY study of type 1 diabetes risk. He completed a further fellowship in interventional endocrinology and thyroid microsurgery at Klinikum Hirslanden in Zurich, Switzerland, and holds the obesity medicine certification of the German Diabetes Society (Adipositologe DDG).

His clinical work spans the full range of adult endocrinology, with particular depth in thyroid nodules and office-based thyroid procedures, diabetes technology (continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pumps and automated insulin delivery), obesity medicine, metabolic liver disease, osteoporosis, and complex hormonal problems that have resisted diagnosis elsewhere.

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Thyroid procedures

Dr. Schneider performs diagnostic thyroid ultrasound, ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy, ethanol ablation of thyroid cysts, and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of benign thyroid nodules in the office under local anesthesia. His outcomes in 118 consecutive RFA patients were presented at ENDO 2026, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting. Thyroid RFA and our results · How thyroid nodules are evaluated

Research

His research career began in vascular biology and islet transplantation in Giessen and Heidelberg, continued in type 1 diabetes immunology at the La Jolla Institute, and moved to clinical diabetes research at the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest Research Institute. He has served as principal investigator on clinical trials in diabetes, thyroid disease, bone health and other areas through EndoTrials.

Selected publications

• Schneider DA, Mba UM, Vizcarra Osuna J. Single-session trans-isthmic radiofrequency ablation for benign thyroid nodules: six-month outcomes from 118 consecutive patients in a U.S. community endocrine practice. ENDO 2026, Chicago (oral presentation and poster).
• Toft-Hansen H, et al. (incl. Schneider DA). Characterization of anti-insulin antibodies in type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: clinical relevance. Int J Mol Sci. 2025;26(4):1730.
• Schneider DA, Trence DL. Possible role of nutrition in prevention of sarcopenia and falls. Endocr Pract. 2019;25(11):1184–1190.
• Sharp SA, et al. (incl. Schneider DA). Development and standardization of an improved type 1 diabetes genetic risk score for use in newborn screening and incident diagnosis. Diabetes Care. 2019;42(2):200–207.
• Schneider DA, et al. Biochemical and clinical features of insulinoma in a patient with Turner syndrome. Case Rep Endocrinol. 2019:6809479.
• Schneider DA, von Herrath MG. Potential viral pathogenic mechanism in human type 1 diabetes. Diabetologia. 2014;57(10):2009–2018.
• Schneider DA, Kretowicz AM, von Herrath MG. Emerging immune therapies in type 1 diabetes and pancreatic islet transplantation. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2013;15(7):581–592.
• Schneider DA, von Herrath MG. Viruses and type 1 diabetes: a dynamic labile equilibrium. Diabetes Manag (Lond). 2013;3(3):217–223.
• Athanasopoulos AN, Schneider D, et al. VEGF-induced up-regulation of CCN1 in osteoblasts mediates proangiogenic activities in endothelial cells and promotes fracture healing. J Biol Chem. 2007;282(37):26746–26753.
• Lai Y, Schneider D, et al. Vascular endothelial growth factor increases functional beta-cell mass by improvement of angiogenesis of isolated human and murine pancreatic islets. Transplantation. 2005;79(11):1530–1536.

Training & Education

• MD — University of Giessen (Justus Liebig University), Germany
• PhD (magna cum laude) — University of Giessen (Justus Liebig University), Germany
• Internal medicine residency — Heidelberg University, Germany; University of California, San Diego
• Research fellowship (Fulbright) — La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology
• Fellowship, Endocrinology, Diabetology, Metabolism & Nutrition — Heidelberg University, Germany, and University of Washington, Seattle
• Fellowship, Interventional Endocrinology & Thyroid Microsurgery — Klinikum Hirslanden, Zurich, Switzerland

Clinical Interests

• Thyroid nodules, thyroid ultrasound, biopsy and radiofrequency ablation
• Graves’ disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and thyroid cancer follow-up
• Diabetes technology — CGM, insulin pumps, automated insulin delivery
• Type 1 diabetes and LADA in adults
• Obesity medicine and metabolic liver disease (MASLD/MASH)
• Osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease
• Complex endocrine conditions and diagnostic challenges

Patient education written by Dr. Schneider

SanDiEndo (thyroid procedures) · HashiExperts (Hashimoto’s) · BoneExperts (osteoporosis) · WeightExperts (obesity) · MASHExperts (fatty liver) · TestoExperts (testosterone) · MenoExperts (menopause)