Personal Statement
John Wilding leads Clinical Research into Obesity, Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of Liverpool. He graduated from Southampton University in 1985, where he continued his clinical training until moving to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, London where he undertook specialist training in Diabetes and Endocrinology, and three years laboratory-based research into the neurobiology of obesity and diabetes. He has been clinical academic at the University of Liverpool since 1996, and was appointed Professor of Medicine in 2005. He leads specialist services for severe obesity at University Hospital Aintree – designated a Centre for Obesity Management by the UK and European Associations for the Study of Obesity.
John’s research team focusses on developing new treatments and strategies to reduce the burden of obesity-related disease. John has published over three hundred and fifty papers, chapters and review articles related to his clinical and laboratory research interests, which include clinical trials in obesity and diabetes, adipocyte biology, functional neuroimaging of appetite in obesity & endocrine disease, and studies of metabolism in obesity and diabetes.
He chairs the NIHR Clinical Research Network National Clinical Research Network Metabolic and Endocrine Speciality Group. He sits on a number of NHS advisory groups in relation to treatment of obesity and has contributed to NICE guidelines.
He is a past Chair of the UK Association for the Study of Obesity and immediate past President of the World Obesity Federation.

Research Overview
Obesity and its complications are the greatest public health threat of the 21st Century and a key NHS priority, backed by the Foresight Report and the Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives Strategy.
I lead Nutrition and Metabolic Research at the University of Liverpool. My groups' research objectives focus on developing new treatments and strategies to reduce the burden of obesity-related disease. The team's expertise ranges from clinical research with patients to linked projects in adipocyte biology, functional neuroimaging of how appetite control is disturbed in obesity & endocrine disease, and studies of liver and muscle metabolism in obesity, diabetes and metabolic-associated fatty liver disease.

I established a clinical investigation laboratory in the Clinical Sciences Centre at Aintree; this was refurbished in 2017. Research activity includes clinical trial work, measurements of metabolic changes during meals and during hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamps, quantification of autonomic nervous system activity using measurements of heart rate and blood pressure variability and non-invasive measurements of arterial stiffness using pulse-wave analysis and measurement of body composition, appetite and energy expenditure using indirect calorimetry. Themes include studies of appetite regulation (including gut hormones) in health and disease and investigation of abnormalities in autonomic regulation of blood pressure and heart rate control that occur in insulin-resistant states such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnoea and relate these to the metabolic disturbances. I have been involved in the design and conduct of studies of novel treatments for obesity and diabetes such as orlistat, sibutramine, leptin, PPAR activators, GLP-1 and other incretin analogues and SGLT2 inhibitors, in collaboration with industrial sponsors. I have set up collaborative projects with several other groups across the NHS in Liverpool including neurology, cardiology, and respiratory medicine, with project grants and / or fellowships from the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK the NIHR and Asthma UK. I have developed links with the Department of Psychology, as part of a Liverpool-wide initiative to collaborate in obesity research. Recent projects include ECAL, a study using indirect calorimetry to support weight management in severe obesity and STRIVE, a collaborative study of liraglutide in UK obesity services. I am a co-applicant on two NIHR programme grants for applied research – PROGROUP – a trial of group treatment for people with severe obesity (PI Jonathan Pinkney, Plymouth), and a study of type 2 diabetes in young people (PI Prof Melanie Davies, Leicester) and a role as Chief International Investigator for several commercial trials in obesity management.

I successfully bid for funds to pilot and audit the development of a comprehensive NHS-funded obesity service (the first in the North West), which has now expanded to provide services across Liverpool and Ashton, Wigan and Leigh and a ‘one-stop’ service for patients in Cumbria and Lancashire. This has attracted national attention, and provides an important core resource for ongoing & future research.