Listen to Professor Garron Dodd’s bar chat about what is beyond Ozempic – now a podcast
Hear how an expert presentation can go from Parisian patisseries to prison and the future of obesity medicines.
Looking for a fascinating listen for your next dogwalk or downtime? Professor Garron Dodd’s Raising the Bar talk is now available to listen to as a podcast.
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 kicked off the event by asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine a Parisian scene, of course involving buttery croissants and chocolat. Pretty soon they were feeling a little hungrier, thanks to food noise.
“Food noise seems quite trivial but it’s of the most complex and deeply difficult things to understand in terms of how the brain controls it,” Professor Dodd said. “Understanding how the brain coordinates this has arguably led to one of the greatest advances In medical science, certainly in our lifetimes."
A major myth is that appetite is driven by the stomach. But it’s actually all in the brain.
Professor Dodd spoke to people in the audience about their diverse experiences with GLP-1 medications and explained how reptiles played a pivotal role in scientific discovery in this field.
The current frontier is stronger and potentially cheaper Ozempic-type drugs.
“The research being done at The University of Melbourne in particular is leading the world. There are amazing scientists who are driving the next frontier.”
Researchers, including those in the Dodd Laboratory, are identifying hormones and receptors that may offer new therapies with a differentiated safety profile.
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“It’s more than the headlines and more than weight loss,” Professor Dodd said.
“We live in an era where there is a treatment for obesity and obesity is the leading risk factor for almost all cancers, stroke, dementia, neurogenic diseases.”
“The next revolution in obesity medicines will not come from telling people to control themselves but understanding what is controlling them.”
The Raising the Bar series brings knowledge out of the Academy, health-care providers, partners and patients together in a way that is accessible to the wider community.
This 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.