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SUMMARY:Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture 2023: Brain Food: How your subconsc
 ious brain controls your appetite\, weight and growth - Professors Stephen
  O’Rahilly and Sadaf Farooqi . - Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly MD FR
 S FMedSci and Professor Sadaf Farooqi PhD\, FRCP\, FMedSci\, FRS
DTSTART:20231116T180000Z
DTEND:20231116T193000Z
UID:TALK207493@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Gates Cambridge Trust
DESCRIPTION:REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gates-cambridge-
 annual-lecture-2023-tickets-726838873637\n\nIn this talk\, Professor Sir S
 tephen O’Rahilly MD FRS FMedSci and Professor Sadaf Farooqi PhD\, FRCP\,
  FMedSci\, FRS will explain how the brain plays a crucial role in controll
 ing our eating habits and body weight. They'll discuss how genes and the p
 athways they control have a significant impact on whether a person gains w
 eight or not\, especially in an environment where high-calorie and tasty f
 oods are easily available\, and physical inactivity is common.\n\nThe lect
 urers will focus on the leptin-melanocortin pathway\, which is a set of pr
 ocesses that regulate body weight in humans. By studying this pathway\, re
 searchers have gained insights into how our body weight is managed\, how o
 ur energy levels are linked to reproduction and growth\, and how problems 
 in these brain mechanisms can lead to obesity.\n\nThey'll also touch upon 
 how this research has influenced society's understanding of obesity and ho
 w it has led to the development of new treatments for severe obesity. With
  over 1 billion overweight or obese people worldwide\, understanding the b
 rain's role in this process is essential for finding effective solutions t
 o tackle this global health issue.\n\nProfessor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly MD
  FRS FMedSci\n\nStephen O’Rahilly is an endocrinologist who has transfor
 med our understanding of the control of human energy balance and metabolis
 m and how these can be disturbed to cause severe obesity and/or subtypes o
 f diabetes. Stephen showed that mutations in single genes can cause a cata
 strophic loss of control of appetite and feeding behaviour\, leading to se
 vere obesity. Some of these inherited disorders can now be treated very ef
 fectively.\n\nStephen studies patients with extreme and inherited metaboli
 c conditions such as severe obesity and insulin resistance. His work first
  established that some very obese children have a mutation in the gene for
  leptin — an appetite-controlling hormone. His work has led to a better 
 understanding of how the brain senses its state of nutrition and controls 
 not only appetite but growth\, the rate of pubertal development and the ac
 crual of muscle mass. His work revealed the genetic basis for more than 20
  human disorders and he works with industry to develop targeted treatments
 .\n\nFrom modest beginnings\, Stephen has built up and leads one of the wo
 rld’s largest institutes for metabolic research at the University of Cam
 bridge. His findings have been recognised internationally with many awards
  and prizes\, and in 2013 he was knighted for services to medical research
 .\n\n[Bio from The Royal Society]\n\nRoles: Professor of Clinical Biochemi
 stry and Medicine \; Director\, Medical Research Council Metabolic Disease
 s Unit\; Co-Director\, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science\; Head 
 of Department of Clinical Biochemistry\, University of Cambridge\; Scienti
 fic Director\, Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre\; Hon Consultant 
 Physician\, Addenbrooke’s Hospital\, Cambridge.\n\nProfessor Sadaf Faroo
 qi PhD\, FRCP\, FMedSci\, FRS\n\nSadaf Farooqi is a Clinician Scientist di
 stinguished for her discoveries of the fundamental mechanisms that control
  human weight regulation and their disruption in obesity. She found that t
 he hormone leptin and its target the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) regula
 te the drive to eat and the preference for rewarding and high fat food\, r
 evealing the biological basis of innate behaviours previously thought to b
 e under voluntary control.\n\nBy precisely connecting molecular mechanisms
  to clinical phenotypes\, her research explained how changes in weight aff
 ect blood pressure by altering leptin-melanocortin signalling\, thereby ex
 plaining the association between obesity and hypertension.\n\nHer identifi
 cation and characterisation of multiple obesity syndromes has led to genet
 ic testing being adopted worldwide\, transforming the lives of families su
 spected of causing severe obesity in children through neglect. Her researc
 h has directly enabled life-saving treatment for some people with severe o
 besity\, therapies that are now licensed and widely available. Her researc
 h into MC4R mutations that protect against obesity and into the genetic ba
 sis of thinness has opened up possibilities for the design of new weight l
 oss treatments.\n\n[Bio from The Royal Society]\n\nRoles: Professor of Met
 abolism and Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician at Wellcome-MRC Ins
 titute of Metabolic Science.
LOCATION:Palmerston Room\, St John's College Cambridge CB2 1TP
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