Endocrine Abstracts

Whilst the recent rise in the prevalence of obesity has been driven by environmental factors, there is considerable evidence from twin and adoption studies that body weight and fat mass are highly heritable traits and differences in susceptibility to obesity have strong genetic determinants. The identification of patients with mutations in the gene encoding the hormone leptin, and their successful treatment with recombinant human leptin, have provided insights into the role of...

Sadaf Farooqi, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge, UK AbstractSadaf Farooqi qualified with Honours in Medicine from the University of Birmingham, being awarded the gold medal. After hospital posts in Birmingham and Oxford she moved to Cambridge to undertake a PhD with Professor Stephen O'Rahilly. She identified the first single gene defect to cause human obesity in patients with a mutation in the leptin gene, p...