Mysteries of 'obesity gene' revealed, could yield new ways to fight hunger

An obesity gene that affects one in every six people could be partially treated thanks to a new study that's finally determined how it works. Researchers led by Rachel Batterham at University College London were looking into an obesity gene, known as FTO, and found that it caused people with a specific variation of it to maintain higher levels of ghrelin, a hunger-stimulating hormone, throughout their system. In people without the gene variation, ghrelin levels dropped after a meal — but in people with the specific gene variant, ghrelin levels remained high even after eating, keeping them hungry.