Improved understanding of fat control and the body clock

Australian researchers have shed more light on an underexplored aspect of the important brain-signaling system that controls appetite, body composition and energy use. Their findings suggest that a specific gene regulating our body clock may play a central role in determining how fat we become.Evolution has preserved the 'neuropeptide Y (NPY) system', as it is known, in most species - indicating its importance - and much of our understanding comes from studying it in mice. There is one important difference, however, between the NPY system in mouse and man.