Written by: Chidinma Chukwukaeme
Edited by: Courtney Myers
This piece was written in collaboration with the 2025 ComSciCon-MI Write-A-Thon.
What if we could make clones of Brad Pitt or Taylor Swift that can act or sing as well as they do? These clones could stand in for them in film scenes or concerts and still perform well. This analogy is similar to what we are researching in the Lee Lab at Michigan State University. Our research focuses on developing and testing clones of chemicals secreted by brown fat (a type of body fat that burns calories to generate heat when activated). These chemicals secreted by brown fat increase the breakdown of fat and glucose in the body. This may provide a less expensive way to help your body burn fat and lose excess weight without exercise or strict dieting.
Today, about 40% of Americans live with obesity (excessive body fat), and the numbers keep rising yearly. Storing fat is not necessarily a bad thing, as it serves as an important energy source for the body. However, excessive fat accumulation or obesity puts you at risk of diabetes (high blood sugar), heart disease, stroke, cancer, and kidney disease. These obesity-related diseases cost the US about $173 billion every year.
Current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs for treating obesity are expensive. These drugs can cost over $1000 per month out of pocket, and most insurances, like Medicaid, do not cover them. They also may cause side effects, like diarrhea, inflammation of the pancreas, high blood pressure, and suicidal thoughts. Another drawback of these medications is that individuals tend to regain the weight they lost when they stop taking them. A more permanent solution to obesity is often bariatric surgery, in which the doctor changes the size of the stomach so that a person cannot eat as much food as they previously could. However, this can lead to complications like infection, bleeding, and malnutrition. These considerations are why we need to find safer, long-lasting, and more affordable treatments for obesity.
That’s why scientists like myself are now turning our attention to the body’s brown fat. Unlike the more common white fat, which stores energy as body fat, brown fat burns energy to generate heat. Previously, scientists believed that brown fat disappears as we grow from childhood to adulthood. However, we now know that while we lose a substantial amount of brown fat with age, we still maintain some of it in various parts of the body, including the neck, spine, and upper back.
Brown fat becomes active when you are exposed to cold or when you exercise. When it is active, it releases chemicals that enhance its actions. Studies in mice have shown that increasing brown fat activity can increase the amount of energy the body spends by increasing heat production. It can also promote weight loss, improve heart health, reduce blood fat levels, and help manage blood sugar. By examining human subjects, researchers have found that individuals with high brown fat activity had fewer cases of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Current research shows that brown fat reduces the risk of the diseases that accumulated white fat predisposes us to. This is why scientists like myself are seeking ways to take advantage of the beneficial effects of brown fat by increasing its activity. In addition to identifying the chemical clones that increase brown fat activity, we also want to understand how these chemicals signal brown fat to break down fat. The most promising clones from our experiments will be developed into drugs for the treatment of obesity. Our goal is to make treatments that are cheaper, more effective, and more sustainable than current options. One day, you might find these brown fat-boosting medicines on your local pharmacy shelf!
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