HI-MAG PostDocs won Research Prize at the 17th Leipzig Research Festival

HI-MAG PostDocs Julia Schuller and Adel Ben-Kraiem, who both work at the research group of Dr. Alexander Jais titled “Diet-Induced Metabolic Alterations”, won the Research Prize at the 17^th Leipzig Research Festival for Life Sciences in the category of Diseases of Civilization: Obesity. The festival took place on January 18^th, 2024, at the Clinical Trial Center on the campus of the University Medicine Leipzig and aimed to promote scientific exchange, create a platform to present innovative research and encourage young scientists to present their work to the broader public.

Julia and Adel are both neuroscientists who joined the Jais Lab in April 2023. Julia did her PhD on binge eating and impulse control in rats focusing on the role of orexin and CART within the nucleus accumbens shell considering the impulsivity trait at the University of Bremen and is currently investigating the role galanin-expressing neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus in the regulation of feeding and energy homeostasis. Adel investigated in his PhD the temporal characterization of the blood-nerve-barrier and specialized pro resolving mediators as therapeutic targets in neuropathyat the University of Würzburg and is currently working on the role of prepronociceptoin (Pnoc) neurons in the medial preoptic Area of the hypothalamus for the regulation of adipose tissue function and energy expenditure.

Julia was awarded the Research prize for her poster presentation on “Unbiased Identification of sucrose-responsive neuronal circuits in control of glucose metabolism” and Adel for his poster presentation on “Activation of preoptic PNOC neurons regulates energy expenditure”.