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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
6 November 2025
Three research groups from the University of Cambridge, the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL and the University of South Florida (USF) have been awarded a highly prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant to study the biology of instinctive behaviour. Some types of animal behaviour are instinctive in that...
Human MC4R deficiency is associated with low lipid levels and reduced cardiovascular risk.
16 October 2025
Commonly, obesity is associated with higher levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol and triglycerides and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, factors which increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, the mechanisms which link obesity to changes in lipid levels are poorly...
23 September 2025
New research presented at this year's Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Vienna, Austria (15-19 September) and published simultaneously in The Lancet shows that a much lower dose than previously thought of a well-known drug used in transplantation immunology, anti-thymocyte...
