The rockefeller university

Jeffrey M. Friedman has been awarded the 2025 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, one of the nation’s most prestigious prizes in biomedicine.

Friedman, who is Rockefeller’s Marilyn M. Simpson Professor, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, is recognized for his discovery of the hormone leptin, which established a biological basis for obesity, led to a life-saving treatment for people with lipodystrophy, and opened the era of molecular exploration in the field of obesity research. He discovered that the mutated gene in a mouse model of obesity encodes a peptide hormone, leptin, which is made by fat cells, and showed that leptin levels increase in parallel with body fat, reducing appetite and stimulating activity. Conversely, genetic loss of leptin promotes obesity with nearly insatiable appetite in humans as well as mice.

Friedman’s work provided the first demonstration that obesity was not simply attributable to a lack of willpower.

Leptin replacement therapy has become a transformative treatment for patients who are genetically deficient in leptin or who are unable to make fat cells, indirectly preventing the production of the hormone. His research has also identified mechanisms that regulate leptin gene expression and uncovered links between leptin and other metabolic pathways, work that has identified potential targets for novel therapies.

Friedman, who is himself a graduate of the Albany Medical College, is the eighth Rockefeller scientist to receive the Albany Prize. Previous recipients are C. David Allis, Luciano Marraffini, James E. Darnell, Jr., Robert G. Roeder, Elaine Fuchs, Ralph Steinman, and Arnold J. Levine.