Sadaf Farooqi

(Ismaa) Sadaf Farooqi FMedSci is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research fellow[4] in Clinical Science, professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a consultant physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK.[2][5][6][7]

Sadaf Farooqi
Professor Sadaf Farooqi at the American Diabetes Association's 79th Scientific Session, June 2019
Born
Ismaa Sadaf Farooqi
Alma mater
Known forGenetics of obesity
AwardsFMedSci (2013)[1]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisGenetics of severe childhood obesity (2001)
InfluencesStephen O'Rahilly[3]
Websitewww.mrl.ims.cam.ac.uk/research/principal-investigators/i-sadaf-farooqi/

Education

Farooqi was educated at the University of Birmingham where she studied medicine, and was awarded a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree in 1993.[5] After working as a pre-registration house officer and senior house officer,[5] she moved into research and was awarded a PhD in 2001 from the University of Cambridge for research on the genetics of severe childhood obesity.[3][8]

Research

Farooqi's research investigates the genetics of obesity.[9][10][11][12] Using candidate genes found in patients with severe obesity, her research group have identified patients with mutations in genes encoding leptin, the leptin receptor and biological targets of leptin action, such as the Melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R). Her group have also demonstrated that the central leptin-melanocortin axis plays a critical role in the regulation of human food intake.[13][14] Research in her laboratory has shown that people who carry variants of the MC4R gene have an increased preference for high fat food (such as certain recipes of chicken korma), but a decreased preference for sugary foods like Eton mess.[3][15][16]

Her research has also proven that mutations in the KSR2 gene are associated with insulin resistance[17] and that genetic variation in the fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) is associated with diminished hunger.[18] Her research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust,[4][19] Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust and the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP7) from the European Union.[5]

Awards and honours

Farooqi was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2013.[1] Her citation on election reads:

Sadaf Farooqi has fundamentally altered our understanding of human obesity. Her work was key to the discovery of the first mutations that cause human obesity, defining and characterising a range of previously undescribed genetic obesity syndromes, and establishing that the principal driver of obesity in these monogenic syndromes was a failure of the central control of appetite and satiety. She has been greatly committed to the translation of her research into patient benefit and has helped to change clinical attitudes and diagnostic practice world-wide. Obesity is one of the major public health threats facing the international community and Farooqi's research has been critical in bringing real biological insights where these were previously lacking.[1]

Farooqi was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili on The Life Scientific, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.[3]

Farooqi was awarded the American Diabetes Association's Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award in 2019.[20]

References
  1. Anon (2013). "Professor Sadaf Farooqi FMedSci". acmedsci.ac.uk. London: Academy of Medical Sciences. Archived from the original on 1 August 2016.
  2. Sadaf Farooqi publications indexed by Google Scholar
  3. Al-Khalili, Jim (2017). "Sadaf Farooqi on what makes us fat". London: BBC.
    Is it true that some people put on weight more easily than others? And if so why? It's a question that's close to many of our hearts. And it's a question that medical researcher, Professor Sadaf Farooqi is trying to answer. In 1997, Sadaf noticed that two children she was studying lacked the hormone leptin. From there, she went on to discover the first single gene defect that causes obesity. For most us, how much we eat is within our control. But for children with this rare inherited condition and, it turned out, several other rare genetic disorders, the evidence is clear. A voracious appetite is not a lifestyle choice: it's a biological response to brains signalling starvation. Sadaf tells Jim how she discovered ten rare genetic disorders that cause severe childhood obesity and what this means for the rest of us.
  4. Anon (2016). "Senior Research Fellowships in Clinical Science: people we've funded". wellcome.ac.uk. London: Wellcome Trust. Archived from the original on 25 January 2017.
  5. Sadaf Farooqi's ORCID 0000-0001-7609-3504
  6. Sadaf Farooqi's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  7. Anon (2016). "Professor Sadaf Farooqi: Cambridge Neuroscience". Cambridge: University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016.
  8. Farooqi, Ismaa Sadaf (2001). Genetics of severe childhood obesity (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 894596925.
  9. Gerken, T.; Girard, C. A.; Tung, Y. -C. L.; Webby, C. J.; Saudek, V.; Hewitson, K. S.; Yeo, G. S. H.; McDonough, M. A.; Cunliffe, S.; McNeill, L. A.; Galvanovskis, J.; Rorsman, P.; Robins, P.; Prieur, X.; Coll, A. P.; Ma, M.; Jovanovic, Z.; Farooqi, I. S.; Sedgwick, B.; Barroso, I.; Lindahl, T.; Ponting, C. P.; Ashcroft, F. M.; O'Rahilly, S.; Schofield, C. J. (2007). "The Obesity-Associated FTO Gene Encodes a 2-Oxoglutarate-Dependent Nucleic Acid Demethylase". Science. 318 (5855): 1469–1472. Bibcode:2007Sci...318.1469G. doi:10.1126/science.1151710. PMC 2668859. PMID 17991826.
  10. OʼRahilly, Stephen; Montague, Carl T.; Farooqi, I. Sadaf; Whitehead, Jonathan P.; Soos, Maria A.; Rau, Harald; Wareham, Nicholas J.; Sewter, Ciaran P.; Digby, Janet E.; Mohammed, Shehla N.; Hurst, Jane A.; Cheetham, Christopher H.; Earley, Alison R.; Barnett, Anthony H.; Prins, Johannes B. (1997). "Congenital leptin deficiency is associated with severe early-onset obesity in humans". Nature. 387 (6636): 903–908. Bibcode:1997Natur.387..903M. doi:10.1038/43185. PMID 9202122.
  11. Speliotes, Elizabeth K; Willer, Cristen J; Berndt, Sonja I; Monda, Keri L; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Jackson, Anne U; Allen, Hana Lango; Lindgren, Cecilia M; Luan, Jian'an; Mägi (2010). "Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index". Nature Genetics. 42 (11): 937–948. doi:10.1038/ng.686. PMC 3014648. PMID 20935630.
  12. Farooqi, I. Sadaf; Jebb, Susan A.; Langmack, Gill; Lawrence, Elizabeth; Cheetham, Christopher H.; Prentice, Andrew M.; Hughes, Ieuan A.; McCamish, Mark A.; O'Rahilly, Stephen (1999). "Effects of Recombinant Leptin Therapy in a Child with Congenital Leptin Deficiency". New England Journal of Medicine. 341 (12): 879–884. doi:10.1056/NEJM199909163411204. PMID 10486419.
  13. Farooqi, I. Sadaf; O'Rahilly, Stephen (2006). "Genetics of Obesity in Humans". Endocrine Reviews. 27 (7): 710–718. doi:10.1210/er.2006-0040. PMID 17122358.
  14. Gallager, James (2013). "Slow metabolism 'obesity excuse' true". London: BBC. Archived from the original on 6 February 2016.
  15. Brierley, Craig (2016). "Chicken korma, Eton mess and a genetic variant provide clues to our food choices". Cambridge: University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016.
  16. van der Klaauw, Agatha A.; Keogh, Julia M.; Henning, Elana; Stephenson, Cheryl; Kelway, Sarah; Trowse, Victoria M.; Subramanian, Naresh; O'Rahilly, Stephen; Fletcher, Paul C.; Farooqi, I. Sadaf (2016). "Divergent effects of central melanocortin signalling on fat and sucrose preference in humans". Nature Communications. 7: 13055. Bibcode:2016NatCo...713055V. doi:10.1038/ncomms13055. PMC 5059464. PMID 27701398.
  17. Pearce, Laura R.; Atanassova, Neli; Banton, Matthew C.; Bottomley, Bill; van der Klaauw, Agatha A.; Revelli, Jean-Pierre; Hendricks, Audrey; Keogh, Julia M.; Henning, Elana; Doree, Deon; Jeter-Jones, Sabrina; Garg, Sumedha; Bochukova, Elena G.; Bounds, Rebecca; Ashford, Sofie; Gayton, Emma; Hindmarsh, Peter C.; Shield, Julian P.H.; Crowne, Elizabeth; Barford, David; Wareham, Nick J.; O'Rahilly, Stephen; Murphy, Michael P.; Powell, David R.; Barroso, Ines; Farooqi, I. Sadaf (2013). "KSR2 Mutations Are Associated with Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Impaired Cellular Fuel Oxidation". Cell. 155 (4): 765–777. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2013.09.058. PMC 3898740. PMID 24209692.
  18. Wardle, Jane; Carnell, Susan; Haworth, Claire M. A.; Farooqi, I. Sadaf; O'Rahilly, Stephen; Plomin, Robert (2008). "Obesity Associated Genetic Variation in FTO is Associated with Diminished Satiety" (PDF). The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 93 (9): 3640–3643. doi:10.1210/jc.2008-0472. PMID 18583465.
  19. Sadaf Farooqi discusses how our genes affect our weight on YouTube Wellcome Collection
  20. "2019 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award - Sadaf Farooqi, MB, ChB (Hons), PhD". professional.diabetes.org. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
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