Accelerating Discovery: New integrated approaches to uncover the brain’s regulation of body weight

Obesity is one of the global health care challenges of the 21st century and a strategic priority of the MRC. The University of Aberdeen (UoA) has a 100 year history of ground-breaking research in nutrition and health, led by researchers within the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health (RINH). The RINH is poised to move on to the UoA and NHS Grampian’s healthcare campus, sharing a site with our Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) thereby providing an optimal environment and unique platform to instigate and develop new technologies to elucidate the primary molecules and pathways controlling body weight. Specifically, we aim to take our expertise to the next level and seek MRC Discovery funding to develop new technology and to deliver benefits through funded pilot studies and knowledge exchange activities. This untapped potential is important because, at present, strategies for obesity treatment are limited, reflecting a profound unmet clinical need. The primary roadblock in the abatement of the obesity epidemic is an incomplete understanding of how body weight is mediated. Research to date indicates that the brain is the master coordinator of body weight, employing a number of interwoven neurological circuits to continually appraise and respond to changes in nutritional state. How the processes work, which neural circuits are the key factors, and how they are disrupted to promote and maintain obesity is unclear. Here we seek an MRC Discovery Award to facilitate our vision of a future centre of excellence in obesity research in Aberdeen by: (1) developing technology to unlock neurobiological processes essential for the prevention and treatment of obesity and; (2) increasing capability and capacity in the neurobiology of obesity research through: (a) creating MRC Discovery Research Fellows in obesity research; (b) pump priming competitively selected pilot studies; and (c) establishing a series of collaborative networking events and efforts, including a seminar series to promote outreach and networking both within Aberdeen and between other centres of excellence and the UoA. This MRC Discovery Award will not only provide a means to identify crucial mediators of body weight with exquisite precision, but will also facilitate the positioning of the UoA as a leader of neuroscience technology and obesity research.