Join Professor Mike Lean for an insight into the 'obesity-mediated' cardiometabolic diseases currently threatening to bankrupt the NHS and devastating low-income Asian communities where no modern treatments are affordable.
A Downing graduate and now Honorary Fellow, Professor Lean's training, together with his clinical and research experience, has led to a startling new dietary treatment to achieve remission of type 2 diabetes, adopted nationwide and challenging the pharmaceutical industry's dominance.
About Professor Lean:
Mike Lean matriculated at Downing in 1970 where he read Medicine and History and Philosophy of Science. He completed his medical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and returned to Cambridge for research training at the MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit.
Professor Lean holds the chair of Human Nutrition, based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he is also a consultant physician with NHS responsibilities.
Over five decades he has generated significant and highly cited research evidence, led large-scale landmark clinical trials including the world-renowned ‘DiRECT’ diabetes remission trial, translated results into practice with health economics analyses, created new national and international guidelines, and trained healthcare professionals and key opinion formers. He currently leads a major research programme in Nepal to establish a sustainable community-owned model, based on local traditional foods, for effective type 2 diabetes prevention and remission in low-income countries.
In 2024 he was the joint winner of the Rank Prize for Nutrition, the major international award in the field.
