Epidemiological Seminar & Drinks with Ruth Loos

The genetics of obesity: From genes to biology and precision medicine

Ruth Loos – Professor and Vice Executive Director at Novo Nordisk Foundation for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR), University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Obesity is a major chronic disease, resulting from an intricate interplay between genes and the environment. Genome-wide association studies have reported more than 1,500 genetic loci associated with body mass index, obesity, and other adiposity traits. Genes located in obesity-associated loci have pointed to the central nervous system to play a critical role in body weight regulation. A major challenge, however, remains pinpointing the causal gene within each locus. I will review various approaches to accelerate the translation from variant-to-function through improving the definition of obesity. I will also discuss the value of genetic information in the context of precision medicine.

Everyone is invited to join us for a glass of wine and epidemiological networking after the seminar.

Participation is free and open to everyone.
The seminar is arranged by the Section of Epidemiology and the Graduate Program in Public Health and Epidemiology.