There’s a kind of “wall switch” in the human genome that’s been newly described. It seems to be able to turn on and off genes controlling the efficiency with which we burn fat.

The study describing the finding in the New England Journal of Medicine reads like a genetic research tour-de-force, showing how the whole circuit is controlled by a single variation in a nucleotide sequence.

The study’s senior author, MIT’s Manolis Kellis, examines the switch and its implications.

[running time: 26 minutes]

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