Prof Tiganis research on brown fat published in Cell

Professor Tony Tiganis

Groundbreaking findings by FMNHS Professor Tony Tiganis and a team of researchers have been published in the leading research journal, Cell.

Prof Tiganis and his team uncovered the way leptin and insulin work together in the brain to stimulate weight loss.

Dean of FMNHS, Professor Christina Mitchell lauded the accomplishment.

"The Faculty is proud to congratulate Professor Tiganis on the considerable achievement of having research published in the prestigious journal Cell,” Prof Mitchell said.

"Professor Tiganis, along with colleagues from numerous world-leading institutions including Harvard, uncovered the role of leptin and insulin in turning white fat cells brown, she added.

"The work has important implications in the fight against obesity."
Read the full study in Cell

Australian-led international study reveals the cause of hypertension in obesity

Leptin, a hormone that regulates the amount of fat stored in the body, also drives the increase in blood pressure that occurs with weight gain, according to researchers from Monash, Warwick, Cambridge and several American universities.

In a ground-breaking study published today in the journal Cell, a research team led by Professor Michael Cowley, from the Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences, have discovered the link between obesity and hypertension.

Being obese or overweight has long been acknowledged as a major risk factor for the development of high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. Whilst a number of factors may be involved, the precise explanation for the link between these two conditions has been unclear until now.

This research has discovered that the hormone leptin, which is secreted by fat cells and is significantly elevated following weight gain and in obesity, acts in the brain to elevate blood pressure. Mice and humans, including a cohort who had problems producing or processing the hormone leptin were compared with ‘healthy’ individuals to see whether this hormone could provide the link.

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