Skinny gene

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You’ve heard of skinny jeans? Now we’re talking about the skinny gene, a recent discovery by scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

If you’ve ever had a friend who positively swore that she couldn’t gain weight, had to eat hamburgers 10 times a day just to maintain, and had never been able to “pinch and inch,” you may have felt more than a bit frustrated. But Janine Geredes says this is a true condition: just as some individuals are predisposed to being overweight, there are those who suffer from being underweight their entire lives as well.

Though the gene was recently discovered over 50 years ago at Yale University, the connection wasn’t made between the gene and weight until recently. After some initial experimentation, the scientists genetically engineered mice with efficient versions of the gene and found that they had one-third the body fat of wild mice.

Scientists are working on how to engineer the gene into an obesity treatment that would effectively combat a person’s predisposition to being overweight. Though outlook is good, don’t binge just yet: a future pill to combat obesity is still far into the future.

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