The effect of overexpression and underexpression of beacon in transgenic mice

超重和肥胖在我们的社会中非常普遍。肥胖是许多医学问题的原因，包括2型糖尿病、高血压、血脂异常、睡眠呼吸暂停、关节炎和一些癌症。个人可以自由选择吃还是不吃的想法只在短期内是正确的。最近的研究清楚地表明，进食的欲望(饥饿)和停止进食的决定(饱腹感)是由大脑中称为下丘脑的区域中许多化学物质(神经递质)的净水平决定的。其中一些神经递质的故障已被证明会导致动物和人类的严重肥胖。清楚地了解下丘脑如何调节体重可能会导致严重肥胖症和厌食症的治疗。这个项目涉及研究一种新的下丘脑蛋白在体重调节中的作用。这种名为beacon的蛋白质是由首席调查员(GC)发现的，他已经证明，当它被注射到大脑中时，会导致老鼠暴饮暴食并增加体重。该项目的目的是制造脑内信标数量增加的小鼠和其他没有信标的小鼠，然后研究其对体重调节的影响。

Overweight and Obesity are very prevalent in our society. Obesity is the cause of many medical problems including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal lipids, sleep apnoea, arthritis and some cancers. The idea that individuals can freely choose whether they eat or not eat is only true in the short term. Recent work has clearly shown that the desire to eat (hunger) and the decision to stop eating (satiety) are determined by the net level of many chemicals (neurotransmitters) in an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. Malfunction in some of these neurotransmitters has been shown to cause severe obesity in both animals and humans. A clear understanding of how the hypothalamus regulates body weight may lead to treatments for both severe obesity and anorexia. This project deals with investigating the role of a new hypothalamic protein in body weight regulation. This protein called beacon was discovered by one of the chief investigators (GC) who has shown that when it is injected in the brain it causes rats to overeat and put on excess weight. The aim of this project is to produce mice in which the amount of beacon is increased in the brain and other mice who do not have beacon and then to study the impact onthe regulation of body weight.