Alastair Kerr

Excess energy is stored in the adipose tissue as fat to be used when the body demands. In obesity the fat tissue become dysfunctional, leading to a higher uncontrolled release of fat into the circulation. The fat released accumulates in other tissues and drives the development of type-2 diabetes. As type-2 diabetes incidence is estimated to be 10% of the world population by 2030, new treatments are required. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of cellular molecules that act in concert with the rest of the cell machinery. The lncRNAs that regulate fat breakdown are not known. I have developed state-of-the-art methods to isolate a lncRNA from a fat cell and discover how it functions mechanistically. Using patient fat tissue data coupled with human stem cell models, I will identify fat breakdown regulating lncRNAs. As many lncRNAs are unique to one type of cell, they offer a precise way to target the fat cell and alter metabolic health.