Brown fat

We’ve all spent time and effort on pointless tasks so we look busy when the boss walks past. But now scientists have discovered a new type of fat cell in the body that does the same thing, burning energy and producing heat with pointless busywork.

By suppressing one protein, stores of white fat can switch to calorie-burning beige fat, in a feat that so far has eluded scientists working in this field. This means long-lasting weight loss without the brain-gut side effects of existing obesity drugs.

In a major breakthrough, scientists have identified a key protein involved in producing brown fat, and found it can even help form these cells in 'bad' white fat. This now opens the door to new weight-loss treatments that have long eluded researchers.

A new heavyweight hero has emerged from the waters of Brooks River to claim the title of summer fatty, conquering some sizeable competition among the bears of Alaska's Katmai National Park. For them, big is not just beautiful but crucial for survival.

Researchers have mapped the nerve pathways that supply brown adipose tissue, or ‘brown fat’. It’s the first step in developing a way of stimulating the nerves to burn fat as a novel treatment for obesity and related metabolic conditions.

Finding the molecular key to turn fat tissue from white to brown has huge potential for weight loss, yet the cellular code has been a hard one to crack. Scientists are now one step closer, finding a way in to manipulate the tricky white fat cells.

Researchers have converted white fat to brown fat to reduce high blood pressure in mice. They say their findings pave the way for targeted treatments for high blood pressure and other metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Bad news, there's no magic pill for weight loss just yet. The good news? Scientists have uncovered the workings of a protein that triggers calorie burning in brown fat, and they believe it gets us one step closer to being able to 'switch on' fat loss.

All it takes is a spin through Instagram to see how keen people are to activate their brown fat cells by sitting in freezing bodies of water. Now, researchers have found a way to do the same thing using a common asthma drug.

Our deepening understanding of the different types of fat continues to present new ways to potentially manipulate metabolic processes for better health outcomes, and new research on an existing asthma drug has opened up a promising new pathway.

Scientists investigating the way a certain type of fat behaves in response to cold have made a discovery that could have ramifications for cancer treatment, showing how tumor cells can be starved of a vital fuel source they need to thrive.

Researchers continue to unravel the complex role inflammation plays in obesity, now demonstrating how cold temperatures can stimulate the release of a molecule that reverses this type of inflammation and reduces body weight in mice.