Leptin: From the Regulation of Feeding to the Response to Cancer
Event Details
- Type
- Monday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Jeffrey Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, The Rockefeller University; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Speaker bio(s)
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Leptin is the afferent signal in a negative feedback loop that maintains homeostatic control of fat mass by regulating food intake and energy expenditure . Leptin decreases food intake by modulating the activity of key neurons in hypothalamus that either increase or decrease appetite. These neurons in turn project to other brain areas that regulate motor programs required for food consumption and the nature of this broader circuit will be described. Low leptin levels signal starvation and in addition to stimulating food intake elicit a series of physiologic responses the net effect of which is to conserve energy. These responses include alterations of immune function and the implications of this for the response to cancer will also be presented.
Dr. Jeffrey Friedman is a Professor at the Rockefeller University and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute studying the physiologic and genetic mechanisms that regulate food intake and body weight. In 1994, his laboratory isolated the mouse ob gene and showed that that it encodes the hormone leptin that reduces food intake in mice. Current research is aimed at understanding the neural and physiological mechanisms by which leptin transmits its weight-reducing signal. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and has won numerous awards including the 2010 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 2019 Wolf Prize in Medicine, the 2009 Shaw Prize, the 2005 Gairdner Award and the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
- Open to
- Campus Only