Oxford "Obesity-Gene" Group Launches Target For Obesity Researchers

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Genetics
Article Date: 15 Aug 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Oxford University's technology transfer company, Isis Innovation, has launched range of new assays for obesity research - tools that can be used to identify potential drug candidates. A team led by Oxford's Prof Chris Schofield has developed the assays. They are based on the group's pioneering work which identified a gene and an enzyme strongly implicated in obesity.

"The FTO gene was the first gene to be identified which is both common, and a strong factor in increased weight," said Prof Schofield. "The fact that we've been able to show that FTO is an enzyme, and have developed assays which will tell us if a drug candidate is targeting that enzyme, opens up the potential of FTO as a 'druggable target', and - we hope - ultimately to a new method for treating obesity."

Previously, researchers had determined that people with two copies of the "fat" FTO gene have a 70 per cent higher risk of obesity than those with none, and weigh 3 kilograms (6.5lb) more. People carrying one copy of the FTO gene had a 30 per cent higher risk of being obese compared to a person with no copies of the gene.

The FTO protein belongs to a family of enzymes known as 'oxygenases', which are involved in cellular processes including DNA repair, fatty acid metabolism and post-translational modifications.

Prof Schofield said that the assays could be used by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies interested in altering FTO activity in a new approach to controlling obesity.

Isis Innovation has applied for a patent on the work and it is now available for commercial use via license. Isis will also set up consultancy agreements with Prof Schofield's group.

A report of the research entitled 'The Obesity-Associated FTO Gene Encodes a 2-Oxoglutarate-Dependent Nucleic Acid Demethylase' was published online in Science Express on 8 November 2007 and in Science (2007, 318, 1469-1472)

The team in Oxford was led by Professor Chris Schofield of Oxford University's Department of Chemistry with Professor Chris Ponting and Professor Frances Ashcroft from Oxford's Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics.

Department of Chemistry - University of Oxford