Heike Münzberg, PhD
Professor
Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Featured in the Session: Metabolic Control in Obesity and Diabetes via Interoception
When
Sunday, June 7
at 4:30 p.m.
Where
356 (Level 3)
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
What is your presentation about?
This presentation explores how leptin-sensitive circuits integrate thermal and metabolic signals to shape body weight. Our data highlights that physiological states, including temperature and energy status, shape the output of leptin- and melanocortin-sensitive circuits that modulate both food intake and energy expenditure. We identify a pathway from the preoptic area to the dorsomedial hypothalamus that suppresses adaptive thermogenesis and feeding, without inhibiting AgRP neurons and reveals a mechanism for circuit-level override. Together, these findings suggest that hypothalamic outputs are determined by dynamic interactions between circuits, rather than fixed activity patterns, and highlight the importance of state-dependent integration in metabolic regulation.
How do you hope your presentation will impact diabetes research or care?
This work emphasizes that neural management of energy balance is strongly influenced by the physiological state of the individual, which may contribute to variability in responses to obesity and diabetes therapies. While lifestyle-induced weight loss is constrained by leptin-dependent adaptive responses that increase hunger and reduce energy expenditure, GLP-1-based medications taught us that hunger response can be overcome despite ongoing weight loss. Understanding how hypothalamic circuits integrate competing physiological signals may help predict treatment responses and define both the limitations and opportunities for optimizing therapeutic strategies.
How did you become involved with this area of diabetes research or care?
I became interested in obesity and diabetes research early on as an undergraduate, when the discovery of leptin sparked my specific interest in energy balance. That interest led me to study central leptin circuits and the role of the brain in energy balance.