6:00pm-7:00pm on Monday 30 March
Times shown are in GMT (UTC +0) up to the 26th March. For events on or after 27th March times are in BST (UTC +1).
Cambridge Union Society, Debating Chamber, 9A Bridge Street, CB2 1UB
GLP-1R agonists, including semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), are hugely effective in the treatment of obesity. Originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes, these drugs also cause dramatic weight loss.
But how do they work, and are these therapeutics the long sought-after solution to obesity? Join Professor Giles Yeo as he explains the mechanisms of action of these drugs, discusses their importance as a therapeutic for obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease and, crucially, whether they are safe in the long term.
Giles Yeo gained his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge in 1998, after which he joined Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly’s lab, to work on the genetics of severe human obesity. Giles is now a Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology and Programme Leader at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit in Cambridge, and his research currently focuses on the influence of genes on feeding behaviour and body weight.
In addition, he is a Fellow of Wolfson College, and Honorary President of the British Dietetic Association. Giles is also an author and a broadcaster, presenting science documentaries for the BBC, and hosts a podcast called Dr Giles Yeo Chews the Fat. His first book, Gene Eating: The Story of Human Appetite, was published in December 2018, and his second book, Why Calories Don’t Count: How we got the science of weight loss wrong, came out in June 2021.
Giles was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours for services to Research, Communication and Engagement, and won the Society for Endocrinology Medal in 2022.
