Eleanor Raffin
Appearances
Global News Podcast
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We've kind of mapped the genes responsible now. We've been working on this for quite a while. And our latest study has pinpointed some of the genes which make some Labradors even greedier than others. It turns out that the top five genes which are influencing whether Labradors gain weight are also important in humans.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
And that's valuable because it kind of allowed us to pinpoint down on some new biology by focusing on our top genes.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
Yeah, absolutely. We were able with this kind of our new genetic signals to be able to kind of put a score on how greedy dogs were or how obesity prone our dogs were. And then what we showed was that that score is related to how greedy they are, what they're like in the home. And the good news is that even for our most obesity prone, high genetic risk dogs,
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
Owners who were completely on it with the management could keep these guys in a really healthy body shape. The thing we showed, though, is that it just takes an awful lot more effort to do that.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
DEN-D1B was the top hit in our genetic study and we pursued that with molecular investigations and we've revealed a new role for it in controlling how the brain responds to body weight and therefore turns hunger up and down. So, honestly, that's a bit of a kind of niche biology for the aficionados of the brain control of energy balance in the body.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
But I think the more general picture is that we could put this kind of score and say that, yeah, if you're a high risk dog, your owner needs to work harder to keep you slim. And if the same is true of people, if you're genetically at high risk, we know that people are just that. a little bit more interested in food and find it a little bit harder to resist temptation.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
So yeah, all of those sensible behavioral things about keeping your home environment full of healthy food rather than unhealthy ones. And I think the important message is that And having a high genetic risk doesn't make you weak willed or anything. It just means that you have to work a lot harder to resist the temptations that we come across in our daily lives.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
And somehow by knowing that and knowing that it is trickier for some people to stay slim means that we can take some of the social stigma of obesity away and give people the support they need to resist temptations.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
There's an online fish doorbell that you can use to help fish in the Netherlands.
Global News Podcast
Dozens killed in clashes in Syria
It turns out that the top five genes which are influencing whether Labradors gain weight are also important in humans.