Jeffrey Zigman, M.D., Ph.D., FTOS, Professor of Internal Medicine and Psychiatry, has been awarded The Obesity Society’s George A. Bray Founders Award, which recognizes an individual for significant contributions that advance the scientific or clinical basis for understanding or treating obesity and for extensive involvement with The Obesity Society.

“This recognition holds tremendous meaning for me because I am deeply passionate about obesity research, have a great appreciation for all that The Obesity Society provides, and continue to thoroughly enjoy my work for The Obesity Society,” Dr. Zigman said.

The honor includes a $1,000 prize and a plaque that will be presented during an awards ceremony at The Obesity Society’s annual scientific meeting in November in San Antonio, where Dr. Zigman will also give the George A. Bray Founders Award Lecture.

Research in the Zigman Lab focuses on the stomach-produced hormone ghrelin. Often referred to as the “hunger hormone,” ghrelin is delivered in the bloodstream to the brain, pituitary gland, and pancreas to stimulate eating, increase body weight, raise blood sugar, enhance exercise endurance, and decrease depression and anxiety.

“My lab has studied where in the brain and in which other organs ghrelin acts to have these effects. We have revealed several key molecular regulators of ghrelin secretion. We have studied the biology of the related hormone LEAP2, which blocks ghrelin action. Also, we have investigated disease states in which alterations to ghrelin or LEAP2 may play a causative or contributing role,” Dr. Zigman said.

The lab’s research has helped demonstrate that targeting ghrelin and LEAP2 – by either boosting or reducing one or the other’s levels – could potentially be used clinically to treat obesity, fatty liver disease, diabetes, and cancer cachexia, a wasting syndrome that occurs in many individuals with advanced forms of cancer.

“Ongoing studies in our lab are trying to determine the impact of ghrelin on the development of eating disorders. We are pursuing new treatments for obesity, cancer cachexia, and neurodegenerative disorders,” Dr. Zigman said. “We are also working to further define the hormonal and neuronal regulators of ghrelin release and the exact brain sites through which ghrelin and LEAP2 act to have their important metabolic and related effects.”

After earning medical and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, where he also completed internal medicine residency training, Dr. Zigman received advanced training through a clinical and research fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2006 and now serves as Director of the Molecular Metabolism & Metabolic Diseases Track in the UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He is also Director of the Enrichment Program at UTSW’s Nutrition & Obesity Research Center (NORC) and, for the last two years, has directed NORC’s “Weight Wellness Day” community outreach event.