Born in Kashmir, young post-doctoral scientist, Dr Jameel Lone flew to South Korea for his PhD and is currently busy in his postdoc in Sweden. He talks about the conversion of bad fat into good fat and its relevance to managing insulin abnormalities in Type 2 diabetes.

KASHMIR LIFE (KL): What is the state and status of obesity in today’s world?

DR JAMEEL LONE (DJL): Nowadays, fatness or obesity is one of the burning issues and crises for world health care. One of the myths circulated about the epidemic of obesity is that it is because of eating too much food. But if we get into the data, it is appallingly pertinent to poverty. There is a study that wherever around the world there is penury, the amount of the installation of junk items and foods is more. It is just the purchasing power of the citizens or a common man that is going down in most of the countries and also because of that they don’t have access to good food. Junk and fast foods fill the stomach too quickly and are above all cheap, which is one of the prominent reasons that get people into obesity.

If we talk about India also, a recent report revealed that kids are more obese. And it is not because of eating too much but because of the excess junk routine, which reflects the economic status.

KL: How has the journey of your career from Kashmir to Sweden been?

DJL: I was born in Shurat Jagir of Kulgam. Adjacent to it is Kanipora village, where I acquired my elementary education and then completed my preparatory education at Government Higher Secondary School, Kulgam. I did BSc from Khanbal, Anantnag. Later, I went to Jamia Hamdard, Delhi for master’s in plant sciences ( botany). I also wrote the NET examination, but unfortunately, wasn’t able to make it.

In the meantime, I got an opportunity in South Korea for research purposes and did my PhD from there. I was working on pet obesity. After completing PhD, I applied for the Post Doc at many Universities and got opportunities in Japan including the Stockholm University, and the Gothenburg University of Sweden. I decided to work in Sweden only. Currently, I am still in my Post Doctoral training.

KL: What was your PhD all about and what were the main takeaways from it?

DJL: I was working on obesity in my PhD at the Daegu University of South Korea. We were working on a strategy, known as browning.

We have two types of fat cells in our body. One is known as white fat (bad fat), which is responsible for obesity and energy storage. Once the carrying capacity of these cells gets breached, then we get the accumulation of fat in our body. The second one is known as brown fat, which is most prominently found in infants as it is involved in the generation of heat.

Our body generates heat in two processes, first when muscles are involved, called shivering thermogenesis, and second when brown fat is utilized, called non-shivering thermogenesis. When babies are born, they do not have that much muscle mass, so, instead of muscles, brown fat is utilized to generate heat. Brown fat has a tendency that it burns energy and is the total opposite of white fat.

So, in my PhD, we were trying to convert some of the white fat cells into brown fat cells. Our project was on finding certain plant compounds, and I was working on curcumin (one of the components of turmeric), which was involved in the browning phenomena (inducing brown fat-like features in the white fat). Turmeric has been found with an established role in obesity and in various positive ways that it impacts the human body mechanism.

This was one of the major takeaways and got published as well. Two days after the publication, an independent Chinese group also came out with the same validation of the research.

KL: How has your Post Doc experience been and what is the status right now?

DJL: In Post Doc we are working on transcription factors that are involved in glucose uptake. Like the food we consume, makes up glucose. In Type 2 Diabetes also, we become insulin resistant because the cells are not able to uptake the glucose. So, we are trying to find out some novel transcription factors that are responsible for insulin resistance. We specifically identify the target like the XY gene and knock out the mice and remove that gene in them. Then we feed them the glucose and emphasize comparison control on those who do not have the gene.

Right now, we are in collaboration with the University of Zurich for this project. So far, I have not published my study but soon it will be out. And after that, I will try to be back among my own people and contribute to research and teaching.

KL: Do you think there is any politics in science?

DJL: There is no politics in science but I think politics does determine how science is progressing. How much is being spent on science, is politics. Also, scientists have certain political and social responsibilities outside the laboratories, which I think the scientific community must realise and discharge. Many scientists are producing vaccines and drugs but those drugs are still inaccessible and unaffordable to billions of people. So, scientists have leverage and they should use that.

If we take the example of Albert Einstein, he is an idol of every scientist. He was also very much involved in the Pugwash Conference when there was a nuclear threat and he with Bertrand Russell (British Mathematician) wrote some manifestos and kind of averted a nuclear disaster. That is my point and scientists need to know that they have a role to play outside laboratories.

KL:  How do you see the policy towards science in today’s world?

DJL: I think being a part of the world and the neoliberal economic model that we have adopted, has had an impact on many parts of the world. The kind of filter that we have to select scientists, like we have NET, SET, and other examinations that need to be passed and crossed in order to get into science.

I think the filter is quite narrow and small and because of that, we are missing thousands of people and brilliant kids, who could be wonderful scientists but are not able to cross that filter. We need to emphasize on that and increase the carrying capacity of the system to involve and contribute to science. If we see the scientific output of the United States, per capita, it is less than Sweden or Denmark. It is because science is more excessive and affordable in these states than in the US. So, what needs to be done is that this filter needs to get extensive so that more and more people get the chance to contribute to science and would eventually, revolutionise science at a mega scale.

…. Umaima Reshi processed the interview.

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