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Fellows Directory

Sadaf Farooqi

Sadaf Farooqi

Professor Sadaf Farooqi FMedSci FRS

Fellow


Elected: 2021

Contact:

Twitter@Farooqi_Lab

wwwhttps://www.goos.org.uk/

ORCID0000-0001-7609-3504

Biography

Sadaf Farooqi is a Clinician Scientist distinguished for her discoveries of the fundamental mechanisms that control human weight regulation and their disruption in obesity. She found that the hormone leptin and its target the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) regulate the drive to eat and the preference for rewarding and high fat food, revealing the biological basis of innate behaviours previously thought to be under voluntary control.

By precisely connecting molecular mechanisms to clinical phenotypes, her research explained how changes in weight affect blood pressure by altering leptin-melanocortin signalling, thereby explaining the association between obesity and hypertension.

Her identification and characterisation of multiple obesity syndromes has led to genetic testing being adopted worldwide, transforming the lives of families suspected of causing severe obesity in children through neglect. Her research has directly enabled life-saving treatment for some people with severe obesity, therapies that are now licensed and widely available. Her research into MC4R mutations that protect against obesity and into the genetic basis of thinness has opened up possibilities for the design of new weight loss treatments.

Professional positions

Professor of Metabolism and Medicine, Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge

Interest and expertise

Subject groups

  • Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
    • Biochemistry and molecular biology
  • Anatomy, physiology and neurosciences
    • Behavioural neuroscience
  • Health and human sciences
    • Clinical endocrinology, Medicine, clinical studies, Molecular medicine

Keywords

Obesity, metabolism, human physiology and behaviour

Awards

  • Croonian Medal and Lecture

    For their seminal discoveries regarding the control of human body weight, resulting in novel diagnostics and therapies, which improve human health (with Sir Stephen O'Rahilly FMedSci FRS).

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