Professor Garron Dodd raised the bar – and got some laughs in about Ozempic and metabolism

For one night only, a pop-up event saw 20 health talks across 10 Melbourne venues, about topics ranging from AI and cancer research to menopause, kids’ sleep, social media habits and the future of robotic surgery.

There was audience participation, imaginary degustation and laughter when Professor Garron Dodd, head of the Metabolic Neuroscience Laboratory in the School of Biomedical Sciences’ Department of Anatomy & Physiology, took part in the Raising the Bar event last Wednesday.

One of 20 talks by health experts across the city, Professor Dodd’s chat took him out of the laboratory and into the Quarterhouse pub in Melbourne’s Docklands. He began by asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine a mouth-watering meal, kicking off a lively discussion about “food noise”, how weight loss drugs work in the brain and body, and the developments we’re likely to see next.

"What struck me most on the night was the depth of the questions from the audience,” Professor Dodd said. “People aren't just curious ... they're invested. And that's exactly the kind of public engagement science needs right now."

Calling up volunteers, Professor Dodd used teaching methods in the bar setting that he wouldn’t usually employ in a lecture theatre.

"The brain is really the missing piece in our understanding of metabolic disease. Once you appreciate that, a whole new frontier of treatment opens up."

"We're living through one of the most exciting moments in the history of metabolic medicine. Drugs like Ozempic have genuinely changed the conversation, but they're just the beginning.”

"The next generation of treatments will target the root causes of obesity and diabetes in ways we simply couldn't before."

The Dodd laboratory uses cutting-edge technologies and in vivo models to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying obesity and type 2 diabetes. Its work could help develop new treatments for metabolic disease – one of the world’s most pressing health concerns.

The Raising the Bar series is about bringing the knowledge of the Academy, health-care providers, partners and patients together in a way that is accessible to the wider community.

The event was part of 150th anniversary celebration activities for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, and covered a range of topics across the full spectrum of our research expertise and clinical leadership on matters that most impact society today.