By Tim Bonfield
Enquirer staff writer

Scientists have identified an enzyme in mice that could help explain why people become more prone to developing diabetes in middle age. That same enzyme, if blocked, also might help prevent obesity.

GEORGE THOMAS

Title: Starts in September as deputy director of the UC Genome Research Institute in Reading. Expertise: Obesity and cancer. Background: Doctorate in biology from the University of California-Santa Cruz in 1975. Joined the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, in 1975. Has been a senior group leader of research there since 1984. In the news: Led a research team that reported in the journal Nature this week that mice avoid obesity and a risk of Type 2 diabetes when they lack the enzyme S6 Kinase 1.

The study, published this week in the online version of the science journal Nature, was led by a scientist working in Switzerland who is moving to Cincinnati to continue his work on anti-obesity research.

A team led by Dr. George Thomas, a researcher with the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, reports that mice lacking an enzyme called S6 Kinase 1 are dramatically less likely to become obese.

The lack of the enzyme appears to protect mice from obesity by making them especially sensitive to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps the body process carbohydrates and fats. The S6 Kinase 1 enzyme is thought to make people become less sensitive to insulin as they age, which in turn makes them more likely to become obese and eventually develop Type 2 diabetes.

Should scientists develop a safe way to block this enzyme's function, it could serve as a treatment for diabetes - the nation's sixth-leading cause of death - and possibly as a diet pill.

Rising obesity rates have become one of the most serious public health problems in the United States. However, it will take several years at least to translate these mice studies into medications for people.

Thomas will be moving to the University of Cincinnati's Genome Research Institute in September, where he will serve as deputy director and continue his research in obesity and cancer.

Recruiting him was a two-year effort during which UC had to compete against several other institutions, said Dr. David Millhorn, director of the genome institute.

"George Thomas is one of the top molecular biologists in the world," Millhorn said. "His recruitment is a major achievement. ... We expect that he will help recruit other world-class investigators and establish a world-class research program."

UC's Genome Research Institute, founded in 2001, already has attracted millions in research grants to search for treatments based on finding genetic links to various diseases. That support includes a $9 million state grant from Gov. Bob Taft's Third Frontier high-tech economic development program.

Thomas will live in Wyoming with his wife, Dr. Sara Kozma, who already works at the genome institute.

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com