François Mathias René Leprieur
François Mathias René Leprieur (18 April 1799, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges – 16 July 1870, Cayenne) was a French pharmacist and naturalist. Throughout his career, he collected specimens in the fields of entomology, ichthyology and botany.
Trained as a naval pharmacist, he was stationed in Senegambia from 1824 to 1829. With botanist George Samuel Perrottet, he conducted exploratory investigations of the region. During a furlough in France in 1829, he began a botanical work based on his observations and collections in Senegambia that was completed by Perrottet, Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemin and Achille Richard and published as "Florae Senegambiae tentamen" (1830-1833).
From 1830 to 1849, he was based in Cayenne, Guyane, where he attained the post of pharmacist first-class. In the interior of the colony, he collected a large amount of natural history specimens. Here, he also took the opportunity to travel the Oyapock River to its source. From 1850 to 1858, he was assigned to the island of Martinique.
Leptin receptor
Leptin receptor also known as LEP-R or OB-R is a protein that in humans is encoded by the LEPR gene. LEP-R functions as a receptor for the fat cell-specific hormone leptin. LEP-R has also been designated as CD295 (cluster of differentiation 295).
After co-discovering the Leptin gene with Jeffrey Friedman et al. in 1994, which involved a reverse genetic/positional cloning strategy to clone ob and db, Rudolph Leibel, working with collaborators at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and colleague Streamson Chua, confirmed cloning of the leptin receptor by demonstrating that an apparent leptin receptor cloned from a choroid plexus library using leptin as ligand, mapped to a physical map that included db and fa.
Function
The leptin hormone regulates adipose-tissue mass through hypothalamus effects on hunger and energy use. It acts through the leptin receptor (LEP-R), a single-transmembrane-domain receptor of the cytokine receptor family.
Clinical significance
Variations in the leptin receptor have been associated with obesity and with increased susceptibility to Entamoeba histolytica infections.
Podcasts:
