A Tale of Two Fats: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic by Engineering Brown Adipose Tissue

Andreas Stahl, Ph.D.

Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Natural Resources

Saturday, October 21, 2017 | 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Alumni House

Current approaches to treat obesity and associated disorders like diabetes and fatty liver disease have proven inefficient, judging by the unabated rise of such diseases in the U.S. and worldwide. During this Homecoming 2017 CNR Faculty Lecture, Professor Stahl will outline how we are developing and testing a novel anti-obesity approach based on the expansion of “brown fat,” a tissue type with a very high metabolic activity that might lead to the conversion of excess calories into heat.

Andreas Stahl is a Professor and Chair at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at UC Berkeley. After receiving his Ph.D. for work done at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Andreas Stahl expanded his training at the Whitehead Institute/MIT where he uncovered a family of fatty acid transporters. He subsequently took up a position as associate staff scientist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute and the Stanford University School of Medicine. Stahl joined UC Berkeley in 2007 where he has continued his work on obesity-related disorders and the molecular mechanisms of nutrient transport.