Professor Suzanne Dickson works in the field of obesity research with the focus on finding out how the brain controls appetite and body weight. The fact that she chose to study and conduct research in medicine was no chance happening, the way she sees it: as a very young girl indeed, Suzanne Dickson decided that she wanted to do something truly out of the ordinary. “I remember sitting on the school bus every day, seeing the same people every day in the morning waiting at the same time for the same bus, and the same people coming home at the same time in the afternoon," recalls Suzanne Dickson. “This really motivated me to achieve for a job which was not going to be exactly the same every day, all year around, for the rest of my life."
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Suzanne Dickson first studied Biological Science Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, then did her PhD thesis on “Neural control of growth hormone section" at the University of Cambridge in 1993. Professor Suzanne Dickson obtained her PhD at the age of 26. “Well, the Scottish system, where I have my origins, actually permits you to start your university studies at the age of 18, which makes it quite possible to obtain a PhD at 26", explains Suzanne Dickson. She conducted postdoctoral research for a year and was rapidly recruited to the academic elite, a tenured Lectureship and Fellowship of Peterhouse, a Cambridge college, for another few years. Suzanne Dickson admits that her first lectureship appointment at 28 was rather precocious, even by British standards.

Professor Suzanne Dickson entered the world of obesity research by the back door. While working at the University of Cambridge she studied how the brain controls hormones that help you grow. However, when she found an entirely new role for these hormones, in triggering the appetite regulatory system, she understood that it may be possible to interfere with these hormones and suppress appetite.

In particular Suzanne Dickson and her team studied a hormone called ghrelin and her contribution to the field began long before the ghrelin hormone was discovered. “We actually knew about its existence before we knew exactly what it was," says Suzanne Dickson. As early as 1993, she showed that synthetic drugs mimicking ghrelin´s actions affect the brain. She mapped the circuits in the brain through which ghrelin operates and noted that it includes the circuits controlling appetite. One major discovery was that animals became obese when treated with ghrelin and its mimetics. “Ghrelin is therefore considered to be a hunger hormone that increases appetite and body fat," explains Suzanne Dickson.

These findings have major importance for the development of new drug strategies for the treatment and prevention of obesity. And obesity is, as we know today, a major problem in many parts of the world. In the US for example, one third of the population is obese and one third is considered to be overweight. According to the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, obesity costs Swedish society about 17 billion kronor every year. Today 54 percent of men and 39 percent of women in Sweden are overweight or obese. (Source: www.tappa.se). What is more, obesity is increasing among children the world over.

“It is extremely difficult to lose weight by using different diets or by changing one´s lifestyle," emphasizes Suzanne Dickson. “The explanation lies naturally in evolution. Over the millennia, the human body has adjusted to irregular availability of food. The situation we have in the western world today, with its surplus of food, which in addition is often unhealthy in its composition, encourages constant overeating. “In bygone times, we had to store food because we never knew when we might eat our next meal. This means that we have a situation today where there is a very important, and urgent, need for new obesity drugs," explains Suzanne Dickson.

In 2007, Suzanne Dickson was awarded the prestigious Erik K Fernström prize “for her significant discovery of ghrelin´s effects on energy metabolism and appetite regulation".

Love for — and marriage to — a Swede from Göteborg determined where Professor Suzanne Dickson would live and work as she continued her career and research. Her husband already had a job in Göteborg while she was still working in Britain. “When we decided to live together, it was of course very fortunate for me," explains Suzanne Dickson. “Göteborg has a long tradition in endocrinology, which facilitated my establishment in my discipline in Göteborg as well." She was recruited to the Sahlgrenska Academy in 2004, as Professor of Physiology.

Today Suzanne Dickson and her husband live south of Göteborg and they have two children, six and four years old. “I cycle to and from work every day, about 15 km, all year around", Professor Dickson explains. “It permits me to have my special time very early in the morning in the lab. That is wonderful and an excellent start to my working day."

Suzanne Dickson believes there are many cultural differences between Sweden and Britain. “In Britain, language reveals social class and hierarchy in society much more than in Sweden," says Suzanne. “Additionally, both the schooling and child-care systems are fantastic in Sweden. The way society is organized in Sweden actually permits me to be able to have a job and a career of my own. That is still not possible in Britain in the same way as it is here in Sweden," Suzanne Dickson points out. “The food culture is different as well," she adds. “But one thing is sure, I would probably miss many things if I moved back to England."

There is one word though that truly warms Suzanne Dickson´s heart. Her daughter Tara said one day to her: “Mamma, I´m jättehappy", (‘very happy´ in mixed Swedish and English). “This really warmed my heart, because my daughter mixed the best of two worlds," explains Suzanne.

Professor Dickson has started up a new company, and she has received considerable help and expertise from the Sahlgrenska Science Park incubator. The company´s business mission is based on previous research into ghrelin´s effect on the brain. Together with Professor Emeritus Jörgen Engel and his research team, Suzanne Dickson's group have been able to show that mice that receive ghrelin increase their alcohol consumption and that alcohol´s addictive effect is reduced if the ghrelin hormone is blocked. The aim is to develop a drug that blocks ghrelin´s receptors and in that way develop a new and effective way of treating alcohol addiction.

Suzanne Dickson not only has a successful career that encompasses stimulating research, a busy family life and a company to handle.  She also leads a large European project, NeuroFAST, that deals with the integrated neurobiology of appetite and reward/addiction, involving 13 European Partners, in which the EU is investing 6 million Euros over a 5 year period. The NeuroFAST project is multidisciplinary bringing together basic and clinical expertise and aims to find new mechanisms to control eating and substance use disorders. This project follows the highly successful EU project DIABESITY that she coordinated involving 27 European partners from 11 different countries, in which the EU is investing 100 million kronor over a five-year period. The DIABESITY project brings together basic and clinical scientists and aims to identify new genes implicated in obesity and to develop strategies for validating these genes as targets for future pharmacological manipulation, thus aiming to find solutions to the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity, type-2 diabetes and associated complications in Europe.

Over the years Suzanne Dickson has met many interesting and fascinating people thanks to her studies and her work. When she was very young, she became interested in baroque music. One thing led to another and one very special day she was asked to sing at the funeral of John Kendrew, a Nobel Price Laureate. John Kendrew discovered the structure of myoglobin and he also really loved baroque music. “I remember being very nervous," recalls Suzanne Dickson. “I was only a newly appointed lecturer in Cambridge, and I was going to sing for all the academics." At the memorial dinner she was seated beside an elderly gentleman who proved to be Jim Wattson, the person who discovered DNA. Suzanne has also met such notables as Prince Philip, the king of Tonga (who is the world´s largest man!), Swedish king Karl XVI Gustav and the Emperor of Japan.
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During Suzanne Dickson´s childhood, her mother worked as a ballet dancer. “I really believe my mother inspired me a lot and I believe that if you want to succeed in research today, you really have to be good at multitasking, just like my mother had to be in her profession. You need to have a combination of skills: you have to be innovative, technically rather competent, a manager, a leader, a performer, you must command business skills, be a salesman and so forth. If you cannot present your work properly, you won´t achieve your true potential. Therefore, research today really demands a wide range of skills in order to ensure success," Suzanne Dickson explains. “I always encourage my students to present their findings in front of an audience when they want to make progress in their research, and if they truly understand what multitasking means. The reason I ask this is because you need so much more than just good research results in order to succeed today," explains Suzanne Dickson.

Is successful research good work or pure coincidence? “Well, all successful people can´t only be lucky, because they keep coming up with good results again and again. I guess you really have to be hard-working in order to be successful," Suzanne Dickson continues.

Professor Suzanne Dickson does reveal one weakness that may seem more than a little surprising bearing in mind that she has dedicated her life to combating obesity and regulating appetite. “I´m a hopeless chocoholic," she laughs. “Chocolate is just about the best thing in the world and probably not a day goes by that I don´t enjoy a piece!"
                                                                                      
Text: Helene Jaktling, GöteborgBIO