Aline Boer's research is essential to improving GIP based weight-loss drugs that are increasing in global popularity.
An Otago academic is investigating the role of intestinal hormones on weight loss, thanks to funding from the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust.
Dr Aline Boer, of the School of Biomedical Sciences Centre for Neuroendocrinology, says the research is essential to improving the new glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) based weight-loss drugs that are increasing in popularity around the world.
These weight-loss drugs, which include semaglutide and tirzepatide, are based on hormones secreted from a person’s intestines when they eat.
Semaglutide, which is based on a single intestinal hormone, can have impressive effects on weight loss. This is further improved when GIP is added to the mix, as is done with tirzepatide.
Dr Aline Boer
However, it is unclear how the GIP-component of tirzepatide actually contributes to the weight-loss effects of this drug, Aline says. Her research will centre around how GIP acts on the brain to affect body weight.
Aline plans to focus on two areas of the brain which are essential for body weight maintenance and modulate the action of GIP in these regions.
Aline has been studying the GIP hormone since her Master’s project in 2014 and throughout her subsequent PhD studies, operating out of a group managed by Professor Jens Juul Holst of the University of Copenhagen.
She then secured funding to continue studying GIP at Otago and considers this research “incredibly exciting” because there is so much to uncover.
“I’m glad that GIP has entered the spotlight because research like this has the potential to change the lives of so many people.
“I am very grateful for the Trust funding our work and recognising its importance, as well as Associate Professors Mike Garratt and Alexander Tups for their mentorship, and my colleagues for their help with the project,” Aline says.
Congratulations to the other Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust recipients:
- Professor Daryl Schwenke - Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Professor Martin Kennedy - Pathology (DSM), Dunedin School of Medicine.
- Associate Professor Megan Wilson - Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Associate Professor Kim Meredith-Jones - Medicine (DSM), Dunedin School of Medicine.
- Dr Karen Reader - Pathology (DSM), Dunedin School of Medicine.
- Dr Sunali Mehta - Pathology (DSM), Dunedin School of Medicine.
- Dr Glen Reid - Pathology (DSM), Dunedin School of Medicine.
- Dr Amy Scott-Thomas - Pathology and Biomedical Science, Christchurch School of Medicine.
- Dr Simone Bayer - Medicine, Christchurch School of Medicine.
- Dr Christine Cleghorn - Public Health, University of Otago Wellington.
- Dr Kirsty Danielson - Surgery and Anaesthesia, University of Otago Wellington.
- Safina Gadeock - Microbiology and Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences.
~ Kōrero by the Division of Health Sciences Communications Adviser, Kelsey Swart.