Dr Ruth Loos
This profile is from the MRC Annual Review 08/09: A day of discovery. The review takes readers on a journey through a day in the life of the MRC, dropping in on people involved in MRC research as they go about their daily business to find out what they’re doing.
Group leader of the aetiology of obesity programme at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge.
Dr Ruth Loos is an MRC scientist who analyses genetic data to discover what makes some people more likely to be obese than others.
Dr Ruth Loos is looking at data in her bright, modern office. She’s just back from her lunchtime run in the surrounding countryside. “I did a short stint as a PE teacher before I moved into research. I still really like being outside and being active. It helps if there are issues I’m struggling with – if I go for a run it seems like less of a big issue by the time I get back.”
Her computer screen displays a colourful chart that looks like the Manhattan skyline, representing vast amounts of genetic data. Ruth leads the genetic aetiology of obesity group at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. She works in the exciting new field of genome-wide association, analysing data from hundreds of thousands of people to pinpoint slight variations in genes which render some people more susceptible to obesity than others.
Last year, Ruth’s analysis identified the second ever genetic region found to be associated with obesity, located near the MC4R gene. “I clearly remember the day we discovered the gene. I was visiting the dentist and while I was in the dentist’s chair I got a phone call saying ‘The gene is replicating!’ we’d contributed to finding the first obesity gene, called FTO, but actually finding one myself was really exciting – it felt like it was my gene.”
Since then, work led by Ruth’s team has uncovered six more obesity genes. Now they’re looking at data on 126,000 people, working with a 160-strong consortium of researchers from the US and Europe. Ruth’s team pools and analyses the consortium’s data, using special software to visualise the results. Genetic variants of interest stick up like a finger out of the chart, which Ruth can then click on to see which gene it maps onto. The next step is to take candidate genetic variants forward for replication in other studies to confirm whether they’re indeed associated with obesity. “The main reason we do this work is to get new insights into the biology of obesity, and in the long term we hope to translate these into public health,” explains Ruth. “We can’t say that just because a baby carries one or more particular variants they will definitely grow up to be obese. Differences between body mass index or obesity risk are about 50 or 60 per cent due to our genes and the rest is to do with diet and physical activity. Our research has shown that even if you carry many gene variants associated with obesity, if you’re physically active you can take control of your weight – I think that’s an important public health message.”
This issue is close to Ruth’s heart, as her background is in sports and exercise science. She did her PhD in her native Belgium monitoring the height and weight of teenage twins as they grew, which sparked an interest in both obesity research and genetics. After three years as a post-doc doing genetics of obesity research, she joined the Epidemiology Unit.
“I feel very lucky to be part of the first group that performed genome-wide association scans for obesity. Since its beginnings the consortium has grown massively, but it’s really nice to have been part of the very first group and to still have a leading role.”
Published August 2009