Harvard and MIT researchers think they’ve cracked the obesity code
Scientists think they’ve figured out how obesity and genetics are linked, according to a new study by researchers from MIT and Harvard.
Previous research had revealed genes were related to obesity, but it had been unclear how. The new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows a fault in a gene leaves people predisposed to store energy from food, rather than burn it.
“Obesity has traditionally been seen as the result of an imbalance between the amount of food we eat and how much we exercise,’’ said senior author of the study Manolis Kellis, in a press release from MIT. But the new development refutes that idea.
According to MIT, the scientists examined over 100 tissues and cell types to identify which cell types affected obesity.
“The uncovered cellular circuits may allow us to dial a metabolic master switch for both risk and non-risk individuals, as a means to counter environmental, lifestyle, or genetic contributors to obesity,’’ Kellis said.
Researchers say while the discovery will allow them to develop an overriding treatment to correct the gene, it’s too early to guess when it could be available.
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