Rudolph Leibel

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Rudolph Leibel
Diabetes Mellitus, Pediatrics
InstitutionsBoston Children's Hospital, Cambridge Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Rockefeller University, Columbia University

Rudolph Leibel (born 1942) is the Christopher J. Murphy Professor of Diabetes Research, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at

Molecular Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics.[2] He is also co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center[3] and executive director of the Russell and Angelica Berrie Program in Cellular Therapy,[4] Co-director of the New York Obesity Research Center[5] and the Columbia University Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center.[6]

Leibel's co-discovery at Rockefeller University of the hormone leptin, and cloning of the leptin and leptin receptor genes, has had a major role in the area of understanding human obesity.[7][8] Leibel has published hundreds of scientific papers on obesity, and has authored and co-authored 70 scientific papers on the topic of leptin specifically.

Research on the "obesity gene": Leptin

Having encountered obesity in children as a medical doctor in the 1970s, Leibel believed that biology played a stronger role than "willpower" in human obesity and joined Jules Hirsch in theorizing about the psychobiology of obesity - a belief that body weight was the result of complex interactions between genes and the environment rather than a simple matter of free will.

Douglas Coleman, Leibel determined that a mutation of the ob gene resulted in mice that were unable to manufacture a working satiety-signaling protein and that a db mutation resulted in mice that had the protein, but lacked the ability to detect the signal.[7][8]

Leibel and Hirsch began a series of scientific investigations aimed at determining any connections between genetics and obesity. Over the course of eight years, Leibel's work ranged from studies of glycerol to the development of a

radioisotopic technique for analysis of free fatty acid re-esterification in human adipose tissue to the metabolic characterization of obesity.[10][11] After concluding that the tools of molecular genetics were key to moving his research forward and finding the obesity gene,[12] Leibel initiated a collaboration with Rockefeller University faculty member and molecular biologist Jeffrey Friedman in 1986, and began to assemble a team of researchers including Streamson C. Chua, Nathan Bahary, Don Siegel, Yiying Zhang, Ricardo Proenca and others. Leibel obtained ongoing funding from the National Institutes of Health and other sources, allowing the team to develop and utilize new techniques in their research such as chromosome microdissection
.

As their research progressed, Leibel at al published a series of papers in scientific journals that reported the mapping of the ob gene, the first of these being a 1990 paper in World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics entitled "Genetic Variation and Nutrition in Obesity: Approaches to the Molecular Genetics of Obesity",[13] and another 1990 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences entitled "Molecular Mapping of the Mouse db Mutation".[14]

Among numerous additional papers published on the topic between 1991 and 1994, Leibel was the lead author of a paper entitled "Strategies for the Molecular Genetic Analysis of Obesity in Humans" in 1993.

fiancée, who was not a scientist; various theories surrounding the omission of Leibel as co-author of this important paper are presented in Ellen Ruppel Shell's 2002 book The Hungry Gene.[7][8]

Leibel continued to author and co-author numerous papers on the connection between genetics and obesity. In 1997, he published a paper in the scientific journal Nature Genetics titled "And Finally, Genes for Human Obesity".[17] Leibel and others involved with the discovery of the obesity gene eventually left Rockefeller University to establish a research base at Columbia University where Leibel became the head of the Division of Molecular Genetics.

Biography and academic background

Leibel obtained an

A.B. from Colgate University in 1963 and an MD in 1967 from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was an Intern and Junior Resident in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1967 to 1969, after which he served as a Major in the United States Army Medical Corps
from 1969 to 1971.

Medical training

After serving as a Senior Resident in Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital from 1971 to 1972, Leibel became an NIH Clinical and Research Fellow in Pediatric Endocrinology-Metabolism at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1972 to 1974. He was a Research Associate in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1975 to 1978 and joined Rockefeller University from 1978 to 1981 as a Rockefeller Scholar in Clinical Science. Leibel completed his training as an Established Investigator at the American Heart Association from 1985 to 1989.

Scientific career

Leibel's seminal contributions to the field of obesity research, and childhood obesity specifically, were highlighted in Okie's 2005 book Fed Up!: Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity.[18] He has authored or co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers, which have been cited over 13,000 times in the world scientific literature.[19] He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, International Journal of Obesity, and Obesity Research, and has received numerous awards for scientific and pioneering work in medical research.

In recognition of his scientific work, Leibel was elected as a member of the

Astra Zeneca
. Leibel also serves as one of four Scientific Steering Committee members of the Type 1 Diabetes Research Consortium, a multi-institutional collaborative program of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, that was established in 2009 to better understand the causes of type 1 diabetes and explore potential therapies. As of 2012, the consortium encompassed 11 institutions and 45 investigators through 28 grants totaling $21.8 million.

Leibel is the Chairman of the Selection Committee for the

NIH Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center (DERC), at Columbia University
.

Research focus

Leibel's initial research was focused on adrenergic receptor-mediated effects on lipolysis, and on the control of fatty acid re-esterification in human adipose tissue. Being among the first investigators to describe anatomic site-related differences in alpha 2 and beta 1 adrenoceptor activity in human adipose tissue, Leibel was also one of the first scientists to assess the role of alpha 2 and beta 1 adrenoceptor in determining the sexual dimorphism in human adipose tissue distribution.[21][22]

In addition to cloning the mouse mahoganoid mutation that modifies the obesity of Yellow mice, Leibel also developed a

esterification pathway in human adipose tissue. This invention has led to elucidation of the control mechanisms involved with circulating free fatty acids
in humans.

After Leibel's co-discovery of the

Millennium Pharmaceuticals and colleague Streamson Chua, confirmed cloning of the leptin receptor by demonstrating that an apparent leptin receptor cloned from a choroid plexus library using leptin as ligand, mapped to a physical map that included db and fa.[23]

The efforts of the Leibel laboratory at

diabetes mellitus type 2
in the context of obesity.

Press and media

Leibel was featured throughout

Charlie Rose,[25] and is often featured in the popular press.[26]

Honors and awards

Some awards have been granted to Leibel include:

  1. Phi Beta Kappa
  2. Alpha Omega Alpha
  3. Austen-Colgate Scholar
  4. NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship
  5. Rockefeller Scholar in Clinical Science
  6. Established Investigator, American Heart Association
  7. Eliot Hochstein Award for excellence in teaching, Cornell University Medical College
  8. Senior List for excellence in teaching, Cornell University Medical College
  9. TOPS Scientific Achievement Award (NAASO - 1996)
  10. NIH/HHS Intragency Committee on Human Nutrition Research (1997)
  11. Member,
    Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
  12. New York State Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) Distinguished Professor (2002)
  13. Distinguished Alumnus Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2005)
  14. Berthold Medal of the European Society of Endocrinology (2008)
  15. Federation Award for Biomedical Research of the Federation of Medical Scientific Societies of the Netherlands, Leiden University. (2008)[27]
  16. Member, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Federal Advisory Council
  17. The Christopher J. Murphy Professorship of Diabetes Research (2011)
  18. Louisiana State University/Pennington Biomedical Research Honoris Causa Doctorate (2012)

Selected articles

References

  1. ^ "Rudolph L. Leibel, MD". Archived from the original on 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  2. ^ "Faculty - Department of Pediatrics - Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons". www.cumc.columbia.edu. 29 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Our Research Faculty | Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center". Archived from the original on 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  4. ^ "The Russell Berrie Foundation - Diabetes and Medical Innovation". Archived from the original on 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  5. ^ "Co-Director". www.nyorc.org. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Diabetes Research Center". Diabetes Research Center.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1422352434
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-1422352434
    .
  9. PMID 6695109
    .
  10. PMID 7453567
    .
  11. PMID 3881046
    .
  12. PMID 3340130
    .
  13. PMID 1973864
    .
  14. PMID 1978328
    .
  15. PMID 8357496
    .
  16. ^ Zhang, Y, Proenca, R, Maffei, M, Barone, M, Leopold, L, and Friedman, JM. Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue" Nature 1994, 372: 425-432.
  17. S2CID 44421686
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0309101981
    .
  19. ^ "Pennington Biomedical Research Center". www.pbrc.edu.
  20. ^ "Rudolph Leibel - Institute of Medicine". Archived from the original on 2013-04-09.
  21. PMID 8784109
    .
  22. S2CID 21353177
    .
  23. PMID 19136999
    .
  24. ^ "Documentaries". HBO.
  25. ^ "Charlie Rose - Rudy Leibel". Archived from the original on 2013-03-28. Retrieved 2013-03-08.
  26. ^
  27. ^ "Activiteiten FMWV - Federa". www.federa.org.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rudolph_Leibel&oldid=1195642476"