Childhood Obesity Conf
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Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D. The Marilyn M. Simpson Professor at Rockefeller University Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inaugural Childhood Obesity Conference October 2, 2013 Big Sandy Superstore Arena Grand Ballroom 1 Center Plaza, Huntington, WV 25701 Dr. Friedman graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and, in 1977 at the age of 22, received his M.D. from Albany Medical College of Union University. After completing two residencies at Albany Medical Center Hospital, Dr. Friedman went to Rockefeller University as a postgraduate fellow and associate physician in 1980. In 1986 he received his Ph.D., working in the lab of James E. Darnell Jr., and was appointed assistant professor. In 1991 he was named head of the laboratory, and in 1995 he was promoted to professor. He was appointed the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor in 1999. He has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1986. Dr. Friedman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, and his honors include the 2010 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, the Keio Medical Science Prize, the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal, the Danone International Prize for Nutrition, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and the Passano Foundation Award. As a nation, America is about 4 billion pounds overweight. This excess weight puts us at Dr. Friedman is a Professor higher risk for a collection of medical complications, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Dr. Friedman has dedicated his career to unraveling the molecular at the Rockefeller University mechanisms that regulate body weight. Using advanced techniques in neurobiology and genetics, Friedman has identified and characterized the activity of leptin, a hormone in New York City and secreted by fat cells that balances food intake and energy expenditure. By studying Director of the University’s leptin—and continuing to search for other genes that influence weight in humans— Friedman hopes to lay the foundation for developing therapies to combat obesity. Starr Center for Human Dr. Friedman was not born with a burning passion to be a scientist. As a young man, Genetics. He also serves as an he aspired to becoming a physician. “Where I grew up, the highest form of human achievement was to become a doctor,” he says. “And I didn’t strongly object.” So Friedman investigator with the Howard entered a six-year medical program out of high school and received his M.D. at the age of 22. However, after a year-long fellowship working in the lab of Dr. Mary Jane Kreek at Hughes Medical Institute. Rockefeller, he fell in love with the life of a scientist. “As a doctor, you’re trained to absorb the facts you’re given and accept them,” says Friedman. “Science is almost the opposite. It’s a frontier of discovery that’s always moving. I decided I wanted to do research.” When Dr. Friedman formed his own lab at Rockefeller, he turned his attention to the question of weight regulation. Working with a special strain of obese mice, Dr. Friedman set out to identify the hormone that normal animals use to control their appetite—a molecule that was missing in the plump rodents. After eight long years—on May 8, 1994, at 5:30 a.m.—he found what he was looking for, evidence that he had located the gene that produces the hormone he later dubbed leptin, after the Greek word for “thin.” It was astonishingly beautiful, he says of the x-ray film that nailed the gene, a piece of data that now hangs on his office wall. Leptin feeds into the circuit of neurons in the brain that controls eating and energy expenditure. When an animal loses weight, leptin concentrations fall. This dip in leptin levels instructs the body to search for food. In studies of obese mice, Friedman has found that leptin actually restructures the brain, rewiring the neural circuit that controls feeding. The hormone reinforces the nerve cells that encourage the body to slenderize and prunes the neurons that compel eating. More specifically, Dr. Friedman studies the molecular mechanisms that regulate food intake and body weight. Genetic studies in mice led to the identification of a hormone made by fat tissue that plays a key role in regulating weight. With the identification of leptin and its receptors, two of the molecular components of a system that maintains constant weight have been identified. Current studies aim to explore the mechanisms by which leptin controls feeding behavior, body weight and glucose metabolism, as well as to identify other key regulators. Leptin is a hormone secreted by the adipose tissue, in proportion to its mass, that modulates food intake relative to energy expenditure, maintaining weight within a relatively narrow range. Increased fat mass increases leptin levels, which reduces body weight; decreased fat mass leads to a decrease in leptin levels and an increase in body weight. “As a doctor, you’re Defects in the leptin gene are associated with severe obesity in animals and humans. Leptin acts on neurons in brain centers that control energy balance, and trained to absorb the facts it plays a general role in regulating many of the physiologic responses observed with changes in nutritional states, with clear effects on female reproduction, you’re given and accept immune function and the function of other hormones, including insulin. them,” says Friedman. Using a novel system that employs an engineered virus to trace the neural circuit modulated by leptin, Dr. Friedman and his colleagues have found that a number “Science is almost the of brain regions, including those known to regulate emotional behavior and higher brain functions, modulate leptin signaling in the hypothalamus. The opposite. It’s a frontier of lab also has shown that these leptin-responsive circuits are extremely dynamic and that leptin has rapid and dramatic effects on the number of synapses found discovery that’s always on key neural pathways that regulate feeding. Using laser photostimulation, moving. I decided I they mapped with great precision the inputs to leptin-responsive neurons. Since his early discoveries, Dr. Friedman and other scientists have found that a certain wanted to do research.” percentage of obese people have defects that render them leptin deficient. Restoring their leptin brings their weight back to normal. “I like the idea that some people have benefited from my work,” he says. More recently, Dr. Friedman has taken the hunt for the genes that make us fat to Kosrae, a small island in the Pacific where obesity is rampant. By analyzing DNA collected from all the adults on the island, Friedman hopes to learn more about why some people are overweight while others are lean. On behalf of the faculty and staff of the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, let me welcome you to our inaugural Childhood Obesity Conference featuring world- renowned obesity researcher, Dr. Jeffrey M. Friedman. As many of you are aware, according to 2012 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Virginia leads the nation in childhood obesity rates with 14.2% of youth under the age of 18 years of age reported as being obese. In particular, 13.7% of West Virginia children ages two years to less than five years are considered obese. We are pleased to offer this conference with the goal of exploring the synergy between research and community programs, as well as to provide the framework to establish the Obesity Prevention Institute at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Dr. Joseph I. Shapiro, Dean Thank you for your interest in today’s program. Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Schedule of Events All sessions held in the Grand Ballroom, Big Sandy Superstore Arena 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. CME Registration and complimentary continental breakfast (RSVP by September 30 to Tami Fletcher at 304.691.1701 or [email protected]) 8:00 a.m. Welcome, Joseph I. Shapiro, M.D., Dean, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Conference Speakers Moderator-Nader G. Abraham, Ph.D., Dr. H.C., Vice-Dean, Research 8:15 a.m. James R. Bailes, M.D. 8:45 a.m. Yoram Elitsur, M.D. 9:15 a.m. Joseph I. Shapiro, M.D. 9:45 a.m.-10 a.m. Conference Break 10:00 a.m. William A. Neal, M.D. 10:30 a.m. Daniel W. Rosenberg, Ph.D. Noon - 1:00 p.m. Keynote Speaker Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D. Complimentary box lunch provided (RSVP by September 30 to Tami Fletcher at 304.691.1701 or [email protected]) 1:30 p.m. Panel Opening Remarks, Karen L. Bowling Cabinet Secretary, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Panel Discussion Invited Panel Participants Moderator - Kevin W. Yingling, R.Ph., M.D., Dean of the Marshall University School of Pharmacy Karen L. Bowling, Cabinet Secretary, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Joseph E. Evans, M.D., Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Dan P. O’Hanlon, Director, West Virginia Network (WVNET), retired Cabell County Circuit Judge and community organizer Evan H. Jenkins, Member of the West Virginia Senate and Executive Director, West Virginia State Medical Association Brent A. Marsteller, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cabell Huntington Hospital Don C. Perdue, R.Ph., Chair, Committee on Health and Human Resources, West Virginia House of Delegates Robert H. Plymale, Chair, Education Committee, West Virginia Senate and Chief Executive Officer, Rahall Transportation Institute David Sheils, President, St. Mary’s Medical Center Foundation William “Bill” A.