School Seminar 24 March 2010

Location: C50
Date(s): Wednesday 24th March 2010 (13:00-14:00)
Contact: Hosted by Professor Fran Ebling
email: francis.ebling@nottingham.ac.uk
tel: 0115 82 30164
Description: School of Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series 2009-10
Professor John Speakman, University of Aberdeen
"Why do we get fat? The evolutionary context of the obesity epidemic"
John Speakman is the Director of the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. He has a distinguished career in research related to energy balance and obesity, and lists his current research interests as:
• The evolutionary context of our propensity to develop obesity.
• Whether the obesity epidemic has been caused more by increases in food intake or decreases in energy expenditure, including physical activity and the causes and consequences of variation in resting metabolic rate.
• Diagnosing the effects of various molecular factors in the brain and peripherally on food intake and energy balance.
• Evaluating the effects of dietary restriction.
He has championed some original views that challenge our assumptions re the ‘thrifty gene’ hypothesis: Speakman JR (2007) A novel non-adaptive scenario explaining the genetic pre-disposition to obesity: the ‘predation release’ hypothesis. CELL metabolism 6: 5-11
His recent publications can be accessed from
www.abdn.ac.uk/ibes/speakman/publications.php

School of Biomedical Sciences

University of Nottingham
Medical School
Queen's Medical Centre
Nottingham, NG7 2UH

telephone: +44 (0) 115 823 0141
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