Endocrine Abstracts

Sadaf Farooqi, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge, UK Abstract

Sadaf Farooqi qualified with Honours in Medicine from the University of Birmingham, being awarded the gold medal. After hospital posts in Birmingham and Oxford she moved to Cambridge to undertake a PhD with Professor Stephen O'Rahilly. She identified the first single gene defect to cause human obesity in patients with a mutation in the leptin gene, published in Nature in 1997 and described their dramatic response to leptin therapy, establishing leptin's role in the regulation of eating behaviour, puberty and immune function.

As a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow at the Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge, Professor Farooqi co-ordinates a programme of research into the genetic, molecular and physiological basis of human obesity.

She has been invited to speak at numerous international meetings, is on several Editorial Boards and has been the recipient of a number of awards in recognition of her contribution to Endocrinology including the Andre Mayer Award 2006 (International Association for the Study of Obesity) and the RD Lawrence Award 2007 (Diabetes UK).