Obesity researcher awarded Danone nutrition prize
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The sixth Danone International Prize for Nutrition, an award that honors innovative nutritional research, was given to Rockefeller University’s Jeffrey Friedman today at the European Nutrition Conference in Paris. The prize, which is worth €120,000 — approximately $163,000 — recognizes scientists who demonstrate research that highlights the importance of nutrition in overall human health. Friedman was chosen through a process involving more than 650 nutrition research institutions worldwide.
The Danone Institute International was created by Groupe Danone in 1991 to promote research, information and education on diet and nutrition. The institute created the Danone Institute International Prize for Nutrition in 1997, and has since recognized six leading scientists around the world for their accomplishments in nutrition research. There are 17 Danone Institutes worldwide, comprising more than 250 international diet and nutrition experts. Danone Institutes are funded by local Danone Companies including The Dannon Company, which produces one of the top-selling brands of yogurt in the United States.
Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor at Rockefeller University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is honored for his research on the role of genetics and leptin, a hormone he discovered, in body-weight regulation. By discovering the endocrine function of leptin in regulating adipose (fat) tissue, and demonstrating that appetite and body weight depend on a complex physiological system, Friedman opened the door for scientists to study the relationship between biology and obesity. Friedman remains at the forefront of research, studying the role of leptin and other new compounds in regulating appetite and weight gain.
Friedman graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received his medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University in Albany, New York. He completed two residencies at Albany Medical Center Hospital and postgraduate fellowships at both Rockefeller University and Cornell University Medical College. He received his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1986 and joined the university’s faculty the same year. He has also been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1986.
