Rates of obesity have increased dramatically over the last decade, especially in the United States. Obesity bears many comorbidities and risks for developing other diseases, such as heart disease. Many methods currently being used to aid in weight loss have proven to be ineffective, and a number of these treatments can cause significant negative side effects, such as nausea. Many forms of dieting are also widely used and advertised, but these do not work for everyone, causing people to become stuck, unable to lose weight with no explanation as to why. 

One FDA-approved obesity therapy is the use of GLP1 agonists. GLP1 is a gut peptide that is released upon the ingestion of a meal and causes us to feel full, thereby inhibiting food intake. These drugs, however, can result in a number of adverse side effects including nausea. This can cause users to stop their treatment and look for other methods to lose weight. The Alhadeff Lab has shown that activity in hindbrain neurons that have the receptor for GLP1 (GLP1R neurons) is able to reduce food intake in mice. There are two parallel hindbrain circuits of which these neurons are a part. The goal of this project is to selectively activate these circuits to determine what each of their functions is on food intake suppression, and to see if either of these circuits may play a role in the side effects caused by GLP1 agonists. This work will hopefully contribute to other research being done to develop an obesity therapeutic that is effective in treating weight loss without negative side effects.