School of Biomedical Sciences cordially invites you to join the following seminar:

Speaker: Professor Jeremy Reiter, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco
Talk Title: Neuronal cilia control long-term energy homeostasis

Date: 25 November 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room 2, 4/F, 3 Sassoon Road
Host: Professor Mu He

Biography

Dr. Jeremy Reiter, MD, PhD, is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). His work focuses on how cells build cilia and how cilia function in intercellular communication, and has included elucidating the mechanisms by which cilia transduce signals such as Hedgehogs, demonstrating that cancer cells can be addicted to their cilia, and discovering the role of the transition zone in gating the ciliary localization of receptors. His studies help reveal how cilia signal, how defective ciliary signaling causes ciliopathies (e.g., cystic kidney diseases), how ciliary defects contribute to diseases not normally considered ciliopathies (e.g., obesity, Hedgehog-associated cancers), and how cilia function in postnatal tissues with a particular focus on the hypothalamic regulation of feeding behavior. In addition, he has been the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Abstract

We have investigated the origins of obesity in ciliopathies. Within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, ciliopathy-associated proteins are required for ciliation or for signaling by Melanocortin 4 Receptor (MC4R), a GPCR that acts at neuronal cilia to regulate long-term energy homeostasis. Reducing the hypothalamic function of a downstream kinase in the cilium, PKA, was sufficient to cause hyperphagia and obesity. Our data suggest that cilia-localized GPCRs function on neurons to control feeding behaviors, and that genetic perturbations to ciliary signaling in these neurons causes some forms of obesity.

ALL ARE WELCOME.