Giles Yeo is the Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology at the

MRC MRC may refer to Government * Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) * Medical Reserve Corps, a US network of volunteer organizations * Municipalité régionale de comté (regional county municipality), Quebec, Canada * Military Revolutionar ...

Metabolic Diseases Unit and Scientific Director of the Genomics/Transcriptomics Core at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Early life and education

He was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and lived in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and since 1994 has been based in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In 1994 he graduated from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(Molecular and Cell Biology) and in 1997 he completed a PhD study at

( Molecular genetics). His focus is on the study of

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

, brain control of body weight and genetic influences on appetitive behaviour.

Career

Media

He has presented three BBC ''Horizon'' documentaries: ''Why Are We Getting So Fat?'' (2016), ''Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth'' (2017) and ''Vitamin Pills: Miracle or Myth?'' (2018). Giles was also a presenter on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's '' Trust Me, I'm A Doctor''. His first book, ''Gene Eating: The Story Of Human Appetite'' was published in December 2018. His second book, ''Why Calories Don't Count'', was published in June 2021. Giles also presented ''Plant Based Promises'', a three-part

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

programme in JuneJuly 2022. He also hosts the podcast ''Dr Giles Yeo Chews The Fat''.

Academic positions

Yeo has held the following posts at the

: *from December 1998: Research Associate at Cambridge Institute for Medical Research *from December 2007: Scientific Director of Genomics/Transcriptomics at Institute for Metabolic Science *from September 2009: Graduate Tutor at Wolfson College, Cambridge *from September 2014: Principal Research Associate at

Metabolic Diseases Unit *from August 2022: Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology at

Metabolic Diseases Unit

Honours and public appearances

In November 2019 Giles was the winner of the centenary year The Genetics Society JBS Haldane Lecture, which ‘recognises an individual for outstanding ability to communicate topical subjects in genetics research, widely interpreted, to an interested lay audience’. His Haldane Lecture was entitled 'Is Obesity A Choice', and was given at

The Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, in ...

in London on November 27, 2019. In October 2020 he was awarded an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

in the Queen's 2020 Birthday Honours for services to 'Research, Communication and Engagement'. In January 2021 he was a guest on the

programme ''

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 science programme, presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili , in which each episode is dedicated to the biography and work of one living scientist. The programme consists of an interview between Al-Khalili a ...

''. He was awarded The Society for Endocrinology medal in 2022. Dr Giles Yeo has been the honorary president of the British Dietetic Association since 2019

References