Research
Genetic Aetiology of Obesity – Ruth Loos
The prevalence of obesity and overweight worldwide continues to increase steadily, causing not only serious personal health problems but also imposing a substantial economic burden on societies. Currently, more than 60% in the UK are overweight; half of these adults are obese. The major cause of the recent obesity epidemic is a changing environment that promotes excessive calorie intake and discourages physical activity. However, not all of us living in the present-day obesogenic environment become overweight or obese. Obesity is a multifactorial disease arising through the joint actions of multiple genetic and environmental factors with the obesogenic environment affecting those who are genetically susceptible most.
Family and twin studies have shown that genetic factors contribute 40 to 70% to the variation in common obesity. In spite of its high heritability and considerable past efforts put in identifying the genetic basis of common obesity, progress has been slow and, until recently, success rather limited.
The ‘Genetic Aetiology of Obesity’ research programme focuses on the discovery of genetic variants contributing to the risk of obesity and related traits, mainly through the genome-wide association approach, a hypothesis-generating approach that interrogates all common genetic variation of the human genome. Our team participates in the GIANT (Genomic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits) consortium, with whom we have already identified a series of genetic variants that were unequivocally associated with obesity-related traits through large-scale genome-wide association meta-analyses. Our traits of interest are not limited to obesity-related outcomes; we also examine the genetic contribution to fitness and physical activity, as mediators of obesity-related traits.
This research programme has also a specific interest in gene-environment interaction to explore whether lifestyle factors, such as diet and physical activity, can reduce the genetic susceptibility to obesity. We recently showed that the more BMI-increasing effect of genetic variants is reduced by 40% in individuals who live an active lifestyle.
Furthermore, our team uses epidemiological methods in large-scale studies to provide first insights in the potential functional implications of the identified obesity-susceptibility variants as well as to assess their implications on public health and predictive value of obesity in the general population.
Group members
Felix Day (PhD Student)
Ema de Lucia-Rolfe (Anthropometrics Specialist)
Marcel den Hoed (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Tuomas Kilpeläinen (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Ruth Loos (Programme Leader)
Jing Hua Zhao (Investigator Scientist)
Jana van Vliet-Ostaptchouk (Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow)
