Jeffrey Friedman | |
|---|---|
 Jeffrey Friedman at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2018 | |
| Born | July 20, 1954 Orlando, Florida, US |
| Alma mater | Rockefeller University (PhD) |
| Known for | discovery of the hormone leptin and its role in regulating body weight |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular genetics |
| Institutions | Rockefeller University |
| Thesis | Regulation of liver gene expression (1986) |
| Website | www |
Jeffrey M. Friedman (born July 20, 1954) is a molecular geneticist at New York City's Rockefeller University and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His discovery of the hormone leptin and its role in regulating body weight has had a major role in the area of human obesity.[1] Friedman is a physician scientist studying the genetic mechanisms that regulate body weight. His research on various aspects of obesity received national attention in late 1994, when it was announced that he and his colleagues had isolated the mouse ob gene and its human homologue. They subsequently found that injections of the encoded protein, leptin, decreases body weight of mice by reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure. Current research is aimed at understanding the genetic basis of obesity in human and the mechanisms by which leptin transmits its weight-reducing signal.
- ^ Zhang, Y; Proenca, R; Maffei, M; Barone, M; Leopold, L; Friedman, JM (December 1994). "Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue". Nature. 1994 (372): 425–432. Bibcode:1994Natur.372..425Z. doi:10.1038/372425a0. PMID 7984236. S2CID 4359725.