Rudolph Leibel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rudolph Leibel
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Rudolph Leibel, 2012
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| Born | 1942 (age 82–83) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Colgate University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
| Known for | Co-Discovery of Leptin, Advancing the Understanding of Obesity |
| Spouse(s) | Lulu Leibel |
| Awards | National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Member; TOPS Scientific Achievement Award; NIH/HHS Intragency Committee on Human Nutrition Research; New York State Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) Distinguished Professor; Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award; Berthold Medal of the European Society of Endocrinology, Federation Award for Biomedical Research of the Federation of Medical Scientific Societies of the Netherlands, Leiden University; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Federal Advisory Council Member; The Christopher J. Murphy Professorship of Diabetes Research at Columbia University; Honoris Causa Doctorate, Louisiana State University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular Genetics, Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, Pediatrics |
| Institutions | Boston Children's Hospital, Cambridge Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Rockefeller University, Columbia University |
Rudolph Leibel, born in 1942, is a very important scientist. He is a professor at Columbia University Medical Center. He helps lead different research centers that study diabetes and obesity.
Dr. Leibel is famous for helping discover a hormone called leptin. Leptin is a special chemical in our bodies. It helps us understand why people become obese. He also helped find the genes for leptin and its receptor. These discoveries have greatly changed how we understand human obesity. Dr. Leibel has written many scientific papers about obesity and leptin.
Contents
Understanding Obesity: The Leptin Discovery
Rudolph Leibel worked as a doctor in the 1970s. He saw many children who were obese. He believed that biology, not just "willpower," played a big part in why people become obese. He thought that body weight was a mix of our genes and our environment. It wasn't just about making simple choices.
Searching for the "Obesity Gene"
In 1978, Dr. Leibel joined Jules Hirsch at Rockefeller University. Their goal was to find what made people eat. They worked with another scientist, Douglas Coleman. They found that a change in a gene called "ob" made mice unable to produce a signal that tells them they are full. Another change, called "db," meant mice had the signal but couldn't understand it.
Dr. Leibel and Dr. Hirsch started many studies. They wanted to see how genes and obesity were connected. Dr. Leibel's work included studying fats and creating new ways to analyze human fat tissue. He realized that understanding genes was key to finding the "obesity gene."
Teamwork and Discoveries
In 1986, Dr. Leibel started working with Jeffrey Friedman, a molecular biologist. They built a team of researchers. They got money from the National Institutes of Health to help with their studies. This allowed them to use new methods, like chromosome microdissection.
Their team published many papers in science journals. These papers showed where the "ob" gene was located. One important paper was in 1990. Another was in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Leibel was the main author of a paper in 1993. It was about how to study obesity in humans using genetics. In 1994, Dr. Friedman published a paper that found and isolated the "ob" gene. Dr. Leibel was not listed as a co-author on this specific paper. However, he was thanked for his important early work.
Dr. Leibel continued to write many papers about genes and obesity. In 1997, he published a paper in Nature Genetics. Later, Dr. Leibel and others involved in the obesity gene discovery moved to Columbia University. There, Dr. Leibel became the head of the Division of Molecular Genetics.
Rudolph Leibel's Background
Rudolph Leibel earned his first degree from Colgate University in 1963. He then got his medical degree (MD) in 1967 from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Early Medical Training
He worked as an intern and resident in pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1967 to 1969. He then served in the United States Army Medical Corps for two years.
After his military service, he was a senior resident at Boston Children's Hospital. From 1972 to 1974, he was a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1975 to 1978. He joined Rockefeller University in 1978 as a scholar. He finished his training as an investigator with the American Heart Association from 1985 to 1989.
His Scientific Career
Dr. Leibel's important work on obesity, especially in children, was highlighted in a 2005 book called Fed Up!: Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity. He has written or co-written over 300 scientific papers. These papers have been used as references by other scientists more than 13,000 times.
He is also on the editorial boards of several science journals. These include the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the International Journal of Obesity. He has received many awards for his pioneering work in medical research.
Awards and Recognition
In 1998, Dr. Leibel was chosen to be a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He also serves on a special council for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
His research gets money from many groups. These include the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association. He also helps lead the Type 1 Diabetes Research Consortium. This group works to understand and find treatments for type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Leibel is the chairman of the committee that selects winners for the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research. He also co-directs the NIH Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center at Columbia University.
What Dr. Leibel Studies
Dr. Leibel's early research looked at how certain signals affect fat in the body. He was one of the first scientists to describe differences in fat tissue in different parts of the body. He also studied how these differences might explain why fat is stored differently in males and females.
He also created a special test to measure how fat is processed in human tissue. This invention helped scientists understand how fats move around in the human body.
Continuing Leptin Research
After helping discover the leptin gene in 1994, Dr. Leibel and his team confirmed the discovery of the leptin receptor. This receptor is like a lock that leptin (the key) fits into. This helps the body understand leptin's signals.
Today, Dr. Leibel's lab at Columbia University focuses on the genes related to obesity and type 2 diabetes. They study how signals in the body control body size and how much fat a person has. His lab is also working to find more genes that affect body weight and the risk of type 2 diabetes in people who are obese.
In the Media
Dr. Leibel was a key expert in the HBO series The Weight of the Nation in 2012. He has also appeared on TV shows like Charlie Rose. He is often featured in popular news articles.
Honors and Awards
Dr. Leibel has received many awards for his important work:
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Alpha Omega Alpha
- Austen-Colgate Scholar
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Rockefeller Scholar in Clinical Science
- Established Investigator, American Heart Association
- Eliot Hochstein Award for excellence in teaching, Cornell University Medical College
- Senior List for excellence in teaching, Cornell University Medical College
- TOPS Scientific Achievement Award (1996)
- NIH/HHS Intragency Committee on Human Nutrition Research (1997)
- Member, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
- New York State Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) Distinguished Professor (2002)
- Distinguished Alumnus Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2005)
- Berthold Medal of the European Society of Endocrinology (2008)
- Federation Award for Biomedical Research (2008)
- Member, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Federal Advisory Council
- The Christopher J. Murphy Professorship of Diabetes Research (2011)
- Louisiana State University/Pennington Biomedical Research Honoris Causa Doctorate (2012)
Images for kids
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Rudolph Leibel, 2012
See also
In Spanish: Rudolph Leibel para niños
