Hanging in front of the abdomen like an apron, the depot of visceral fat known as the omentum helps regulate immune responses.

Animals lacking a sense of smell stayed thinner than their smelling counterparts, despite eating the same amount.

Limiting food intake leads to the conversion of white fat cells into more metabolically active brown fat cells through an immune response, a mouse study shows.

In mice lacking intestinal microbiota, white fat turns brown and obesity is prevented.

Assistant Professor, Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco. Age: 39

Bruce Spiegelman has spent his career at the forefront of adipocyte differentiation and metabolism.

Scientists know how to turn on these fat-combusting cells. Can these energy burners be used to combat obesity?

Researchers who first identified irisin quantitate levels of the hormone in human blood and show it is released during exercise.  

Following extreme trauma, patients’ adipose samples have revealed—for the first time in humans—that white fat can be converted into energy-burning brown fat.