Jeffrey M. Friedman

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Jeffrey M. Friedman (born July 20, 1954) is a molecular geneticist at Rockefeller University in New York City and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Human obesity has a huge influence on his discovery of the hormone leptin and its role in regulating body weight. Friedman is a physician scientist who studies the genetic factors that regulate body weight.

His studies on various aspects of obesity were published in late 1994, when it was revealed that he and his colleagues had isolated the mouse ob gene and its human homologue.

They discovered that injections of the encoded protein, leptin, reduces body weight and raises energy expenditures in mice.

Current research aims to investigate the genetic foundations of human obesity and the mechanisms by which leptin secretly sends its weight-reducing signal.

Education

Friedman was born in Orlando, Florida, on July 20, 1954, and grew up in North Woodmere, New York, after graduating from Hewlett High School in 1971. He aspired to be a physician as a youth. He completed his M.D. in a six-year medical school out of high school. I am 22 years old, so I guess it was time for me to move to the United States. But after a year of experience in Mary Jane Kreek's laboratory, he fell in love with the science life. "You're taught as a doctor to take the facts and accept them," Friedman says. "Science is almost the opposite." It's a frontier of discovery that's always moving. "I wanted to do study" and "did not want to do research." Friedman began his studies at the Rockefeller University in 1980, where he was awarded a Ph.D. degree in 1986. Friedman received a BSc and M.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1973 and M.D. graduated from Albany Medical College in 1977 and 1980 in Albany Medical College. He served as a postgraduate fellow at Cornell University Medical College from 1980 to 1981.

Personal life

Friedman, Lily Safani, and his twin daughters, Alexandra and Nathalie, live in New York City.

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Career and research

Friedman was appointed Assistant Investigator with The Rockefeller University in 1986, promoted to Associate Investigator in 1991, and Investigator in 1996, and was awarded the Marilyn M. Simpson professorship in 1998.

When Friedman founded his own laboratory at The Rockefeller University, he turned his attention to the subject of weight control. He began to investigate the hormone that normal animals use to regulate their appetite, a substance that was missing in the plump rodents. He found what he was looking for after eight years—on May 8, 1994, at 5:30 a.m.—he found what he was looking for: evidence that he had discovered the gene that gave the hormone he later referred to as "leptin" (Leptos). "It was amazingly beautiful" he says of the x-ray film that linked the gene, a piece of evidence that now hangs on his office wall.

Numerous lines of evidence have shown that the energy balance between animals and humans is tightly controlled. Two of the molecular components of a system that maintains constant weight were identified with the characterization of leptin and its receptors by Friedman's laboratory. Leptin is a hormone secretly stored in proportion to its mass, which in turn regulates food intake relative to energy expenditure. Leptin levels rises, which in turn reduces body mass; decreased fat mass leads to a decrease in leptin] levels and an increase in body weight. Weight is held within a narrow range by this system. Animals and humans are obese as a result of leptin gene mutations. Leptin works on a set of neurons in brain centers that control energy balance. Leptin has also played a general role in many of the physiological responses that can be observed as a result of diet change, with strong influences on female reproduction, immune function, and the production of several other hormones, including insulin.

Leptin enters the brain circuit that controls eating and energy expenditure, which is controlled by neurons. Leptin concentrations decrease as an animal loses weight. The body is encouraged to search for food due to this decrease in leptin levels. Friedman has found that leptin actually restructures the brain, rewiring the neural circuit that regulates feeding. The hormone promotes the nerve cells that encourage the body to slenderize and prunes the neurons that compel eating.

Friedman has over one hundred and fifty books as well as over ten book chapters.

He is also involved in the studies relating to the 1st inbred rat model of obesity and aging, as well as WNIN/Ob obese rats, which are both developed in National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India.

Friedman's work in the field of obesity and the leptin gene has resulted in numerous prestigious accolades: his work in the field has culminated in him receiving numerous prestigious accolades:

In a long interview with host Alan Alda, his leptin work earned him a lot of television time, including an appearance on the PBS show Scientific American Frontiers.

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