Friedman, Princess Research Award: “We have opened a new era in diabetes care” – Princess of Asturias Awards

Dr. Jeffrey M. Friedman, born in Orlando, USA, 69 years ago, is one of the participants in the scientific revolution that earned him the Princess of Asturias Award. Thirty years after discovering leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells that helps control hunger and the amount of fat stored in the body, he is one of five Princess Award winners in the Research category. His research, together with that of Canadian Daniel J. Drucker, Dane Jens Juul Holst, American Joel F. Habener, and Macedonian Svetlana Moisova, resulted in the creation of several drugs, such as Ozempic, an injectable drug (initially aimed at controlling diabetes). type 2, and then its ability to lose weight was noticed), whose sales generate billions of euros every year. “We have opened a new era in the treatment of diabetes,” he admitted yesterday in an interview with LA NUEVA ESPAÑA. He also backs their anti-obesity benefits: “These new treatments help you lose weight with pills and they are quite effective and something we are going to get used to. In fact, they have already had a major impact on this disease.”

Jeffrey M. Friedman understands the prestige of the award he will receive in Oviedo in October. “I am honored to be among yesterday’s and today’s winners, not only in my field, but in all the others that make up this award,” he says.

He graduated from the School of Medicine at Albany Medical College and received his doctorate from The Rockefeller University (New York) in 1986. He has published 238 scientific articles and received 59,201 citations. Add “Princess of Asturias” to countless professional recognitions. Besides the awards, he is most proud of the fact that his discoveries are leading to more effective treatments for patients. “I hope that with new advances based on our research, treatment will become easier in the future,” he says.

He says his passion for fighting diabetes began when he joined the laboratories of the Howard Hughes Institute, affiliated with New York University. “We are studying the biological mechanisms that regulate food intake and body weight and lead to obesity. My interest in this area was born out of the hope of understanding how this behavior is regulated,” he explains. In obesity, this mechanism may be unbalanced. The WHO estimates that the number of obese people has doubled since 1990, reaching almost 900 million worldwide. “This problem is also linked to poverty, caused, among other things, by a lack of healthy food at affordable prices and opportunities for exercise,” the scientist says.

The hormone leptin, discovered in Friedman’s laboratory, plays a critical role in regulating food intake and body weight. In addition to combating diabetes and obesity, the drugs resulting from their discoveries have the potential to mitigate other associated high-risk pathologies, such as cardiovascular disease. However, the American researcher emphasizes that the drug is not suitable for all types of patients: “The treatment obtained with leptin is very effective in reducing body weight, but in a small number of people. However, the discovery of the hormone and its mechanism of action has helped us identify the genetic factors that lead to obesity.”

His scientific achievements and those of the four colleagues with whom he shares this award, who identified the gut hormone (GLP-1), which stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin when blood sugar levels are high, may make diabetes a treatable disease in the future. .

Friedman is cautious in this regard, aware of drug shortages that are driving up drug prices, but he is also optimistic. “There are different types of diabetes, and new treatments are very effective in treating type 2 diabetes or adult-onset diabetes,” he adds.

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