A UF scientist is one step closer to inventing an anti-obesity drug after his studies were published Sunday in the science journal Nature Medicine.
Stephen Hsu collaborated with scientists from Harvard University and Boston University to target a protein, TRIP-Br2, and mimic its absence, which helps the body burn fat and prevents insulin resistance and obesity.
Beginning in 2007 at UF’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Development Institute, Hsu put a sample of mice on a high-fat diet.
Mice with two copies of the gene became insulin resistant, developed Type 2 diabetes and had high cholesterol.
Mice with one copy of the gene had normal effects, and mice with no gene remained lean and burned fat.
Hsu first identified the protein in 1996 during his residency in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School.
He said turning his findings from mice into an approved drug for humans could take seven to 10 years and cost millions of dollars.
“It’s the difference between mice and men,” Hsu said.
He said he is very optimistic that the drug will be available for humans to use.
“I want to know that I developed something that would have a large impact on a large population,” Hsu said.
In 2008, he collaborated with UF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute to work on the research.
“We’re very interested in supporting this concept and its application on humans,” said David Nelson, director of UF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
He said the center helped to fund Hsu’s salary and his research through a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Hsu described the feeling of having his findings published as satisfying.
“Nobody believes you until you publish it,” he said. “We brought very important large work of five years to tell a complete story, so people can move forward with this discovery.”
Contact Colleen Wright at cwright@alligator.org.
