( CNN)– All of us know the type. They can consume all they desire, invest zero time at the health club and don’t place on an ounce.
Now, according to new initial research released Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers may have found the gene that assists these super-skinny individuals remain so slim, potentially opening up a new frontier in treatments to deal with weight problems.
An international team of scientists stated they have determined a hereditary variant distinct to thin individuals in what’s known as the ALK gene. The ALK gene makes a protein called anaplastic lymphoma kinase, which is associated with cell growth.
They pinpointed the alternative after taking a look at DNA samples and medical data of more than 47,000 healthy people in Estonia between the ages of 20 and 44.
” The Estonia biobank is really unique in its detail,” stated senior author Josef Penninger, a professor in the department of medical genetics and the director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia.
” We looked at the hereditary maps of people with a BMI [body mass index] below 18 and compared them with those of individuals of normal weight and discovered the [genetic variant] that correlated with being incredibly skinny,” Penninge