Obesity Prize for Excellence awarded to clinical researcher for distinguished and innovative work in obesity and its complications

As clinician-scientist, Professor Farooqi has fundamentally advanced scientific understanding of how body weight is regulated in humans and has helped shape new approaches to obesity management. The prize, awarded jointly by EASO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, includes a DKK 2 million award. Of this, DKK 300,000 is a personal award, and DKK 1.7 million goes to support further research. Four researchers will also receive New Investigator Awards for their promising obesity research.

The EASO – Novo Nordisk Foundation Obesity Prize for Excellence is awarded annually for outstanding research or technological contributions that can improve our understanding of obesity, its causes, complications, prevention, and management.

“Congratulations to Professor Sadaf Farooqi, the 2026 Obesity Prize for Excellence winner, and to the New Investigator Award recipients announced today.” says EASO President, Professor Volkan Yumuk.

“Professor Farooqi’s pioneering research over the past two decades has fundamentally advanced our understanding of the genetic and biological mechanisms that contribute to the development of obesity. We are pleased to continue our partnership with the Novo Nordisk Foundation in supporting research that advances the science of obesity. We look forward to recognising the awardees and hearing their presentations at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul in May, 2026.”

Significant innovation
Professor Farooqi is Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories, University of Cambridge. She is also Co-Director of the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Cambridge Clinical Research Facility, lead for the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre’s Nutrition, Obesity, Metabolism and Endocrinology theme, and Honorary Consultant Physician at Cambridge University Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

With decades of experience in obesity science and medicine, Professor Farooqi has made an exceptional contribution to the field, authoring 160+ original articles and several reviews. Her research has shown that leptin – a hormone that helps signal when we’ve eaten enough – plays a crucial role in stabilising the body’s energy balance. Her work therefore provided the first clear demonstration that our eating behaviour is strongly regulated by biological mechanisms, rather than being driven solely by individual choice or willpower.

Through pioneering genetic, molecular, and clinical research, Professor Farooqi has transformed scientific understanding of the biological factors that regulate appetite and body weight. Her studies of the world’s largest cohorts of people with rare genetic forms of obesity have reshaped both scientific approaches to obesity and broader societal attitudes toward this complex chronic disease, helping to challenge long-standing stigma.

In addition, Professor Farooqi’s research has demonstrated that severe childhood obesity can arise from underlying genetic disorders rather than parental neglect, transforming clinical understanding and care. Her discoveries have enabled lifesaving, mechanism-based therapies for rare genetic forms of obesity, allowing affected children to receive appropriate treatment and lead healthier lives.

“I am deeply honoured to receive this award in recognition of our team’s work.” says Professor Farooqi. “Over the last two decades, our research has proved that genetic and biological factors play a major role in the development of obesity. With this Prize, we will develop new technology to study how hormones made by adipose tissue affect mechanisms such as glucose uptake, inflammation and lipid accumulation across multiple organs, using Organ-on-a-chip technology.

“Harnessing the latest advances in technology, our aim is to identify new molecular mechanisms which can be targeted therapeutically to improve the lives of children and adults living with obesity.”

Four outstanding researchers receive New Investigator Awards
In addition to the Obesity Prize for Excellence, EASO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation have announced four New Investigator Awards, each including a research grant of DKK 300,000.

I Gusti Ngurah Edi Putra (United Kingdom), recipient of the Award in Public Health, is a Lecturer in the Appetite and Obesity Group, Department of Psychology, and a Research Associate (NIHR DSE Fellow) in the NCD Prevention and Food Policy Modelling Group, Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems, University of Liverpool.

With a background in quantitative public health research, his current work focuses on understanding the effectiveness of food labelling policies (e.g., menu labelling) and estimating the long-term population-level health and economic impacts of obesity-related public health policies (e.g., taxation, front-of-package nutrition labelling). Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology, where he examined the role of psychological well-being in explaining weight change and obesity-related adverse physical health outcomes using large-scale longitudinal data from the UK and the US.

He also led research on the acceptability of obesity-related public health policies among UK adults with eating disorders and other mental health conditions, and contributed to studies evaluating the impact and accuracy of menu calorie labelling policy in England. His research interests include obesity and psychological well-being, obesity-related public health policies, non-communicable diseases, and social inequalities in health.

Sara E. Stinson (Norway), recipient of the Award in Childhood Obesity, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Section for Precision Psychiatry, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Norway. Her postdoctoral research focuses on integrating multi-omics data with national health registries to improve prediction of age at onset of type 2 diabetes and risk of cardiovascular complications.

Stinson completed her PhD at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Her doctoral research investigated proglucagon-derived hormones – key messengers involved in regulating metabolism – and plasma proteomic biomarkers – patterns of proteins circulating in the blood that can signal changes in health – associated with pediatric obesity. This work helped advance mechanistic understanding of early cardiometabolic risk and response to non-pharmacological interventions.

She received her MSc in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

With a multidisciplinary and international background, her research combines large-scale genetics, proteomics (the large-scale study of proteins), and metabolomics (the study of metabolites) with longitudinal clinical data in Nordic cohorts to shed light on molecular mechanisms underlying childhood obesity and thus refine disease stratification approaches, enabling earlier precision-based prevention strategies.

Nele Steenackers (Belgium), recipient of the Award in Clinical Research, is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM) at Maastricht University, Netherlands. She is a biomedical scientist specialising in nutrition, a registered dietitian, and trained in health economics. Her research examines how lifestyle and nutrition can support obesity treatment across care settings with a particular interest in preventive approaches and behavioral factors that shape treatment response.

She obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences at KU Leuven Belgium, where she investigated how obesity and bariatric surgery alter gastrointestinal transit, pH, bile acid metabolism, and nutrient absorption. This work contributed to a better understanding of nutritional deficiencies and metabolic adaptation in chronic care.

Her current research extends this translational framework, examining how dietary patterns, food-related behaviors, and gastrointestinal physiology interact with treatment response, positioning nutrition as both a supportive and optimising strategy alongside surgical and pharmacological treatment.

Alongside biological mechanisms, her work considers the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual factors that influence how patients experience and adhere to treatment in real-world settings. Beyond academia, she actively bridges science, clinical practice, and policy working with patient organisations and healthcare professionals, to translate research into accessible, person-centered obesity care.

Jens Lund (Denmark), recipient of the Award in Basic Science, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at University of Copenhagen. Lund is trained in nutrition, biochemistry, and human biology. From 2023-2025, he was a fellow of the BRIDGE – Translational Excellence Programme at University of Copenhagen.

Lund investigates the biological regulation of energy balance and adiposity. His PhD project explored how signaling metabolites, such as lactate, affect body weight and energy balance. This line of research uncovered major overlooked methodological problems that can confound the study of metabolites.

More specifically, it revealed that factors related to the administered metabolite solutions, rather than the metabolites per se, can drive the “anti-obesity” effects of metabolites in animals. This is illustrated by the profound sickness response (i.e. loss of appetite and weight loss) seen when laboratory animals are treated with severely hypertonic (highly concentrated) solutions of metabolite salts.

Alongside his work on metabolites, Lund investigates why some individuals easily gain weight while others are protected against obesity. This work involves studies across the weight spectrum and the preliminary findings from research in mice challenge the prevailing idea that obesity is primarily driven by hedonic overeating.

ECO2026 Award presentation
The prize and awards will be presented at the 33rd European Congress on Obesity (#ECO2026), 12-15 May 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey, where delegates will have the opportunity to hear a plenary lecture from the Obesity Prize for Excellence winner and presentations from the New Investigator Award winners. Registration and further details are available here.

For additional information regarding the criteria and application process for the Obesity Prize for Excellence and New Investigator Awards, please visit the EASO website.