If you think about it, it's realistic that we could shut down ALK and reduce ALK function to see if we did stay skinny, aLK inhibitors are used in cancer treatments already. It's targetable. We could possibly inhibit ALK, and we actually will try to do this in the future.

Josef Penninger

We looked at the genetic maps of people with a BMI [ body mass index ] below 18 and compared them with those of people of normal weight and found the [ genetic variant ] that correlated with being super skinny.

Josef Penninger

We gave the mice( what amounted to) a McDonald's diet. The normal mice got obese and the ones without ALK remained skinny.

Josef Penninger