Antonio Vidal-Puig

Antonio Vidal-Puig (born Valencia, SpainJune 12, 1962) is a Spanish medical doctor and scientist who works as a Professor of Molecular Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Cambridge (UK), best known for advancing the concept that pharmacological targeting of brown fat may serve to treat overweight and obesity in affected individuals,as well as for introducing the concept of adipose tissue expandability as an important factor in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in the context of positive energy balance. Hispublished work focuses on areas such as adipose tissue metabolism and lipotoxicity, regulation of insulin secretion,  and the pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Vidal-Puig studied medicine and trained in endocrinology at University of Valencia Medical School and University of Granada Medical School. He held post-doctoral positions in Boston at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, from 1992–1999., where his mentors included Jeff Flier, Brad Lowell, David Moller, and Leo Krall. In 2015 he completed the Executive Master of Business Administration at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

Vidal-Puig developed his career in the UK since 2000 at the University of Cambridge, where he established his research laboratory at the Institute of Metabolic Science, and became a Professor of Molecular Nutrition and Metabolism, as well as an Honorary Consultant in Metabolic Medicine. In 2014 he became elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK).

Together with Matej Orešič, in 2014 he edited an essay volume addressed to the specialized public, entitled titled "A Systems Biology Approach to Study Metabolic Syndrome". Since 2019 he has been associated with the newly launched Cambridge University Nanjing Centre for Technology. As a Visiting Professor at Nanjing University, he is now engaged in studies concerning aspects of the increasing epidemic of obesity and diabetes occurring in China. He is also a Chair of the Life Sciences Panel and a recipient of a Principal Investigator award of theEuropean Research Council.

Vidal-Puig's research team in Cambridge is devoted to exploring "the molecular mechanisms involved in controlling energy expenditure, fat deposition, and the mechanisms controlling the partition of energy towards oxidation or storage". More specifically the group attempts to investigate a) lipotoxic effects on insulin sensitivity, b) strategies to activate thermogenesis in adipose tissue, c) molecular mechanisms that control energy expenditure and brown fat activation, and d) the modulation of fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle.

Innovative concepts bolstered by Vidal-Puig along his scientific career notably include:

• Adipose tissue expandability hypothesis. The concept was first advanced by Vidal-Puig in 2006. According to the hypothesis, the expansion of orthotopically located adipose tissue (AT) is a normal phenomenon whenever an individual undergoes sustained positive energy balance, serving a function as strategic fuel storage. Nevertheless, AT expansion may reach a threshold state beyond which deleterious (toxic) effects ensue, among them: - ectopic accumulation of lipids in organs such as muscle, liver, heart, kidney; - accumulation of macrophages in AT, and -spillover of proinflammatory molecular species from metabolically overburdened AT (lipotoxicity). These toxic effects would eventually lead to the installation of disease states typically accompanying obesity, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and heart attacks. Vidal-Puig's expandability concept has gained wide acceptance among experts.
• Brown fat targeting to treat obesity. Since brown fat is known to burn lipids to produce heat through the uncoupling of its mitochondria (thermogenesis), taking advantage of this phenomenon has been historically suggested as a possible way to fight obesity. Contributions by Vidal-Puig to develop this idea have included detailed studies of the neural, metabolic, and genetic control of the thermogenic uncoupling of adipocyte mitochondria, as well as the testing of possible synthetic activators of such uncoupling. In reports that reached wide media coverage, Vidal-Puig's team has recently unveiled the existence of naturally occurring, pro-thermogenic and anti-thermogenic biochemical mechanisms serving to control mitochondrial uncoupling in fat cells, the exploitation of which might one day serve to advance this quest. In the course of an interview in 2017, Vidal-Puig suggested the use of tissue engineering andbioprinting approaches to increase brown fat mass, as a way to prevent obesity and diabetes.

Vidal-Puig gave the 2015 FEBS National Lecture, the 2016 Maimonides Lecture Award by the University of Córdoba,and the 2019 Sir Philip Randle Lecture sponsored by the British Biochemical Society.

He has been awarded the Lilly Foundation Distinguished Career Award (2015) ,the Hippocrates International Award for Medical Research on Human Nutrition given by the Real Academia de Medicina y Cirugía of the Principality of Asturias (2015)the Society for Endocrinology Medal (2017).