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The Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories (IMS-MRL) and its embedded Medical Research Council (MRC) Metabolic Diseases Unit investigate the mechanisms through which metabolic health is maintained and how this is disturbed in disease. We seek to use that knowledge to aid better treatment and prevention of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and related endocrine and metabolic diseases.
IMS-MRL research groups encompass skills in genetics, cell biology, cell signalling, neuroendocrinology, bioenergetics, human and animal physiology, experimental medicine and clinical trials.
Latest news
Are gut hormones an underlooked cause of our IBS?
29 July 2025
Research published in Gut and led by Dr Chris Bannon from the Gribble/Reimann group at the IMS-MRL, has highlighted an important role that gut hormones play in patients with chronic diarrhoea. The gut is known to release over 20 different hormones with actions including controlling appetite, blood sugar and speed of gut...
Child’s weight for life shaped by first 1,000 days, report health experts
14 July 2025
A critical window of just 1,000 days – from pregnancy through to a child’s second birthday – has been identified as key to influencing weight patterns that can last a lifetime, according to a new report from the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and Italy’s Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. The 'Early years interventions to...
Rare gene variants reveal a new Prader-Willi-like Syndrome behind childhood obesity
2 July 2025
Researchers from the Yeo group at the IMS-MRL including Giles Yeo, Anna-Maria Siegert, and Loraine Tung , working in collaboration with Institut Pasteur de Lille, Imperial College London and research teams in Pakistan, have identified that mutations in the SREK1 gene result in severe early onset obesity and share features...
