John R. Speakman
John R. Speakman
Academician
Ph.D, D.Sc
Email:j.speakman@siat.ac.cn
Dr. Speakman is a Chief Scientist at Center for Energy Metabolism and Reproduction of SIAT; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2004); Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2008); Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (2009); Fellow of the Academy of Europe (2012); Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2017); Fellow of the Royal Society (2018); Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2019); International Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences (2020). He received the Scottish Science medal (2003) awarded to the top scientist in Scotland, was the first Briton to receive the CAS medal for International collaboration (2015), and was awarded several International prizes including the Clive McCay prize lecture in aging (2012), the Scholander-Irving prize lecture in comparative physiology (2014), the TOPS award of the US Obesity Society (2020) and the Osborne-Mendel award for fundamental nutritional research at the American Nutrition Society (2020). He moved to China in 2011 as an A class 1000 talents awardee.
He has published over 550 ISI papers attracting more than 40,000 citations and his h factor is 105 (Google scholar: March 2021). He published 9 papers in Nature and Science (twice on the front cover of Nature), 4x in Cell metabolism, 2x in National Science Review and 4x in PNAS. He published a definitive guide to the doubly-labelled water method in 1997 and is coauthor of a major 1100 page textbook on Animal Physiology (2021). He serves on the editorial boards of Science, Physiological reviews, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society and 9 other ISI journals.
Contributions to Science
Dr. Speakman has made six notable contributions to science:
1
Development and application of the doubly-labelled water method.
He was instrumental in developing the theoretical and practical basis of an isotope-based method for the study of energy demands in free-living animals and humans: the doubly-labelled water (DLW) technique. A single author, 400-page book published in 1997 (Doubly-labelled water: theory and practice. Springer New York) remains the standard reference for this method. He was the driving force behind compilation of an international database of DLW measures hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and is chair of the database management group.
2
Derivation of the dual intervention point model for weight regulation and the ‘drifty gene’ hypothesis.
His work revolutionised our perceptions of the evolutionary underpinning of the obesity epidemic. Drawing on his work on body weight regulation in small mammals he proposed a fundamentally new hypothesis: called the ‘drifty gene’ hypothesis. An aspect of this was the development of a novel model for body weight regulation that has become known as the dual intervention point model.
3
Elucidating the nature of the limits on sustained energy expenditure/intake.
Starting in 1996 this work has led to a series of 31 papers in the Journal of Experimental Biology. These observations led to a radical new idea – that the limit on expenditure is imposed by the capacity to dissipate heat. This concept was expanded into a more comprehensive theory concerning the more general limits on animal
metabolic rates (the heat dissipation limit theory).
4
Refuting the rate of living theory
The rate-of-living and free-radical theory of ageing was the dominant theory of ageing until the late 1990s, and the suggested role of free-radicals and oxidative stress as mediators of life history trade-offs has been dominant since that time. Speakman’s work (alongside that of others) has been instrumental in overturning both these ideas.
5
Demonstrating that the main driver of obesity is elevated intake not reduced expenditure.
After its discovery as the first major gene driving obesity at the population level, Speakman’s group were first to show that FTO exerts its effects via modulation of energy intake not expenditure. He also demonstrated that over the time course of the obesity epidemic energy expenditures have not fallen, and hence the reason for the epdemic is increased food intake, not lowered expenditure. This work has expanded in the last 5 years to address the major macronutrient drivers of energy intake.
6
Studies of graded calorie restriction and the clean cupboards hypothesis.
Since 2015 his group has published 17 papers on the impacts of graded calorie restriction on aging related phenotypes in the mouse. This detailed work led to derivation of a novel hypothesis regarding the mechanism and evolutionary background of the effects of calorie restriction on aging called the ’clean cupboards’ hypothesis.
Research areas
The molecular basis and evolution of the regulation of food intake, energy expenditure and body composition; the causes and consequences of the phenomena of obesity and aging; metabolic studies of humans, model animals in captivity and wild animals.
Xiaoli Li
xiaoli.li@siat.ac.cn
Tel: +86-755-86569441
