News / Announcements
February 2009
Mitchell A. Lazar, M.D., Ph.D. has been awarded the 2009 Stanley J. Korsmeyer ASCI Award, for his outstanding contributions to our understanding of the transcriptional regulation of metabolism.
January 27, 2009
Some People May Simply Be Hard-Wired To Overeat, Brain Scans Show
Rexford Ahima, MD, PhD, Director of the Obesity Unit in the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, is quoted in an MSNBC.com article on a British study where brain scans revealed how “external food sensitivity” – susceptibility to cravings after smelling or seeing food – influences people's eating habits.
Dr. Ahima notes that a craving for a reward is analogous to that found in the brains of drug addicts and many smokers. The study provides further confirmation that chronic overeating isn’t always as easily controlled as going on the latest fad diet, explained Ahima. The people aren't even looking at real food, “and look at how their brains light up.”
December 22, 2008
Editing Errors: Penn Study Finds Reduction in Antibody Gene Rearrangement in B Cells Related to Type 1 Diabetes, Lupus.
Implications for new tests and more personalized treatments for autoimmune diseases.
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December 1, 2008
Thin is in? Tell that to a hungry mouse.
What separates the thin from the fat is proving more complicated than a simple tally of calories eaten and calories burned. Earlier studies suggested that sleep has something to do with it. A Penn study, described in the Philadelphia Inquirer, found that a pair of proteins make that link in an odd sort of way.
Mitch Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, knew that the proteins, NCoR and HDAC3, work together to influence metabolism. "It was one of those experiments where we didn't know what to expect," says Lazar, whose findings appear in the current issue of Nature.
