International Journal of Obesity quotes a selection of articles from 2021, which top the
list of the journal’s most cited, downloaded and most shared (including press
coverage, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Weibo) articles. They showcase the breadth of
scope and coverage that the journal consistently delivers to its readers. Our paper
“The chemokine CXCL14 is negatively associated with obesity and concomitant type-2
diabetes in humans” by R. Cereijo, T. Quesada-López, A. Gavaldà-Navarro, J. Tarascó, S.
Pellitero, M. Reyes, M. Puig-Domingo, M. Giralt, D. Sánchez-Infantes & F.Villarroya,
published in January 2021, has been selected. The article states the importance of
CXCL14 as a biomarker of obesity/diabetes in humans after our previous study in Cell
Metabolism 2018 identifying CXCL14 as a novel batokine on the basis of rodent model
studies. The International Journal of Obesity is a leading multi-disciplinary journal
from the Nature editorial group publishing research describing basic, clinical and
applied studies in obesity and related disorders.







The project "ACBP, a new cadiomyokine for dtection and treatment of cardiac disease" has been awarded as research project by "Sociedad Española de Cardiología" and "Fundación Española del Corazón 2021". The project is leaded by Anna Planavila with participation of Francesc Villarroya and Albert Blasco, and the award will support translational research on molecular cardiology. Dr Planavila received the award at the Awards Ceremony on occasion of the recent "SEC 2021 - Annual Congress of the Spanish Society of Cardiology" at Zaragoza, Spain, last October 29.



Since the affiliation of our research team at Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Deu, a fruitful program of collaborative research in pediatric endocrinology has developed with the team leaded by Dr. Lourdes Ibàñez. Recent results on the importance of sex differences in brown fat activity in the first year of life and the role of the batokine CXCL14 have been presented at the III IRSJD Scientific Meeting  held at Facultat de Biologia, University of Barcelona, the last  October, 28 These results have been recently published at J Clin Endocr Metab.



 




Obesity is expanding in dogs leading to disease conditions in these domestic pets and affecting their quality of life and that from their owners. Moreover, management of obesity in pets has relevant economic implications. F.Villarroya participated as invited speaker in the on-line symposium with a presentation on the mechanisms involved in the pathogenic consequences of hypertrophied fat, plasticity of adipose tissue and evidence of these phenomena in dogs.

 




The event of presentation of Sanna Laurila thesis, from the PET laboratory at the University of Turku, took place last 13 August, with Francesc Villarroya acting as opponent, a honorary role for doctorate qualification in the Finish University. The work by S.Laurila was related to the role of secretin in the control of human brown adipose tissue activity and was developed in the laboratory of K.Virtanen and P.Nuutila, international leader in research on human brown fat.






A project on hepatocarcinogenesis and metabolic lipotoxity, led by Francesc
Villarroya, has been one of the initiatives selected by the AECC, in the category of Ideas Semilla 2019. F. Villarroya was in charge of representing the project in the commemorative act that the AECC held on September 24, in the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, on the occasion of World Research Day in Cancer (World Cancer Research Day).
In this edition, the AECC Scientific Foundation Research programs awarded 171 projects worth about 21 million euros, which integrate from great innovative and disruptive ideas to projects financed in a coordinated manner with large European foundations. Our focus is to investigate whether brown fat activation could be protective against liver cancer, as preliminary studies in our laboratory suggest.