The CrickConnect team are delighted to be able to invite community members to join us for the institute's regular Crick Lecture.

Crick Lectures provide a broad insight into biomedical research from leading scientists. Not to be missed, the one-hour lectures are the event of the week for the Crick community to come together. The lectures aim to be accessible to scientists across different disciplines, while also offering something for the specialist.

There is also an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends over refreshments after Crick Lectures from 17:00. If you are able to join us in person at the Crick please let us know at connect@crick.ac.uk so we can arrange access.

Sadaf Farooqi Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and Consultant Physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge gives todays lecture.

Her team studies the molecular and physiological pathways involved in the regulation of human appetite and body weight and their disruption in obesity. Some of the molecular pathways involved in regulating weight also regulate blood pressure and lipid metabolism, and affect an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease. Sadaf also leads on the Genetics of Obesity Study which aims to understand why people gain weight and to find better ways to prevent and treat weight problems such as obesity.

Biography

Farooqi studied Medicine at the University of Birmingham and was awarded a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree in 1993. After working as a pre-registration house officer and senior house officer 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.
Farooqi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013.Her citation on election read:

"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."