News

Professor Sadaf Farooqi honoured with an Endocrine Society 2026 Laureate Award

10 September 2025

The Endocrine Society has announced 12 leading endocrinologists as winners of its prestigious 2026 Laureate Awards, the top honours in the field, including Professor Sadaf Farooqi, Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the IMS-MRL, who has been awarded with the Gerald D. Aurbach Award for Outstanding Translational...

graphical abstract illustrating the paper's findings

Human glucagon receptor deficiency causes early-onset liver steatosis

3 September 2025

In a paper published in Diabetes , the Farooqi team have identified homozygous loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding the glucagon receptor (GCGR), in a family in whom three individuals developed early-onset fatty liver disease (and in one case cirrhosis of the liver). While this condition is commonly associated...

image of weighing scales and a tape measure

Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) signalling in oligodendrocyte cells in the brain increases the weight loss action of anti-obesity medicines.

13 August 2025

The next-generation of obesity medicines harness the activity of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptors (GIPR, GLP-1R), but exactly how they work remains unclear. A recent study published in Cell Metabolism and led by Dr Robert Hansford (PhD student with the Blouet group) and...

graphical abstract summarising the paper

The gut's hidden messengers: unlocking the signalling pathways of human serotonin release

12 August 2025

Research recently published (article in press) in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CMGH) and led by Dr Constanza Alcaino from the Gribble/Reimann group, and colleagues at the IMS-MRL and elsewhere, has for the first time, provided a complete expression and functional profile of human enterochromaffin...

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...

Dr Chris Bannon announced as recipient of a BMA Foundation grant

16 July 2025

Congratulations to Dr Chris Bannon who has been awarded a £65,000 BMA Foundation grant to further develop his research into the role of the gut hormone INSL5, in patients with chronic diarrhoea . The Kathleen Harper (2025) grant is awarded to medical practitioners or scientists developing their research careers or taking...

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...

Structure of SREK1 and location of mutations

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...

Professor Sir Stephen O'Rahilly jointly shares the Distinguished Service Award at the 2nd Lund Spring Symposium

22 May 2025

Congratulations to Professor Stephen O'Rahilly from the IMS-MRL and Professor Jens Juul Holst (Copenhagen University, Denmark) who are joint winners of the Distinguished Service Award presented at the 2nd Lund Spring Symposium taking place in Sweden this week. Professor Holst co-discovered the hormone glucagon-like peptide...

Professor Frank Reimann announced as a new Academy of Medical Sciences Fellow

22 May 2025

The Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) has announced its newly elected biomedical and health scientists to its prestigious Fellowship, and we are delighted that Professor Frank Reimann from the IMS-MRL is included in the list of 54 exceptional researchers. Frank is Professor of Endocrine Signalling and his research lab, in...