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A word from the Editor

| A word from the Editor



When I started at medical school, adipocytes were the ‘magnolia woodchip’ of the metabolic world. Beige but in a bad way: a boring, inert, storage cupboard that acted as a convenient filler to stop important organs jiggling together when we moved. Skip on a few decades and that world view seems risible. I am delighted that the once humble fat cell is the cover star of this edition, and that we have a cracking series of articles on all things adipose.

Justin Rochford starts off by bringing us up to speed on the basic biology of the fat cell, before Cannon and Nedergaard outline with great clarity the key physiological features of brown fat, and Mark Christian explores how adipocytes may be therapeutically modulated. Moving outside of these tissue depots, you can read a fascinating piece from Cawthorn and MacDougald on the role of fat in bone marrow, be reminded of the benefits of ‘healthy fat’ by Mann and Savage, and understand the spectrum of serious disorders that result from disorders of fat accumulation in the liver by Allison and Vacca. On top of all this, Paul Franks gives us an important insight into genetic precision as it applies to metabolism.

With a timely reminder from Antonia Brooke on the power of peer review, a very encouraging report on a career taster day and a ‘tour de force’ from Kevin Murphy, we round off the final issue of The Endocrinologist for this year.

This issue is also my final one as Editor. It’s been a blast working on the magazine and I hope we as an Editorial Board have managed to maintain the very high standards of our predecessors. Huge thanks go to all at the Society for Endocrinology for offering endless support and giving us the freedom to go all over the place with ideas. A sincere thank you is offered to all who responded to my badgering emails and messages and delivered great articles again and again.

With the new team led by Amir, Helen and Eilidh, The Endocrinologist will be in safe hands and increasingly well positioned to take advantage of all that digital and social media have to offer. Now, more than ever, there is a need for clear, articulate comment and I know that the Society has within its membership some of the brightest and sharpest minds around. Please don’t hold back in coming forward and contributing ideas, comments and articles.

Thanks for reading and thanks for getting involved.

Tony Coll

Editor, The Endocrinologist




This Issue:

The Endocrinologist

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Spring 2024

Spring 2024