About the lab
Our goal is to understand
how the brain controls
energy and glucose homeostasis
to identify new therapeutic targets for the treatment of obesity and metabolic diseases.
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Specialised cells in the brain monitor the body's nutritional and metabolic status and constantly check that the right amount and type of nutrients are available to maintain physiological functions.
When these cells work properly, appetite is matched to homeostatic needs, and weight maintained to a stable set point,
Obesity develops when these cells stop working properly, increasing the risk for various metabolic dysfunctions, cancer and heart disease. There is an urgent need to better understand the biology of appetite control in order to design better anti-obesity treatments and curb the obesity epidemic.
We focus our efforts on the characterisation of how nutrients and metabolic signals are detected by the brain to maintain energy and nutrient homeostasis in health and disease. We employ a multi-disciplinary approach to identify and characterise metabolic- and nutrient-sensing cells in the brain, perform discrete molecular manipulations of these cells, and decipher the downstream behavioural, metabolic and neuroendocrine circuits.
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Eventually we hope to contribute to the discovery of new therapies to help people loose weight and restore metabolic health.