Dr. Leanne Hodson

Biography

Leanne Hodson is a Professor of Metabolic Physiology and a BHF Senior Basic Science Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on metabolic alterations associated with nutritional states and substrates, such as sugars and fatty acids, and their metabolic consequences, particularly in obesity. She conducts whole-body human physiological studies to understand metabolic integration across tissues, with a current emphasis on liver fat metabolism and its implications for metabolic health. The accumulation of fat in the liver is a key factor in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Her work employs a combination of human in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro approaches alongside metabolically-labelled substrates to investigate the pathways involved in liver fat metabolism. Understanding these regulatory pathways aims to inspire new therapeutic strategies to prevent and treat NAFLD. Leanne was awarded the British Heart Foundation Senior Fellowship in Basic Science in 2015 and previously held the Gridlers’ Health Research Council (NZ) Career Development Fellowship which supported her post-doctoral work at the University of Oxford. Additionally, she has received the British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellowship in Basic Science from 2011 to 2015.

Research Interests