Posted 2 October 2023
Could the answer to obesity be, quite literally, all in the head? Dr Kim Loh certainly thinks so.
Recently awarded a highly competitive ARC Future Fellowship, Kim is investigating the role of a specific protein in the brain on metabolic function.
“Obesity is directly connected to diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It affects 30% of Australian adults and cost $11 billion a year to treat. We suspect a novel protein in the brain is responsible for the disease development,” he said.
Affecting billions of people worldwide, obesity is also difficult to treat with any lasting success.
“One of the hardest things about obesity is that losing weight and keeping it off is really difficult.
“Our goal is to understand how this protein in the brain controls appetite and energy metabolism in order to then develop new, effective and lasting weight management strategies to combat obesity.”
Kim is among a distinguished group of a hundred Future Fellows across Australia who will collectively receive over $97 million in grants.
The Future Fellowships scheme aims to support outstanding mid-career researchers in conducting high-quality research that contributes to both national and international benefit.