Jens Juul Holst on the gut hormone discovery behind weight-loss drugs

In this episode of The Life Scientific, host Jamal Khalili interviews Professor Jens Juhl-Holst, a pioneering researcher behind the discovery of GLP-1, the gut hormone that underpins today's revolutionary weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Holst recounts his journey from a bullied red-haired student in Copenhagen to a leading medical physiologist whose decades-long work in the 1980s laid the foundation for GLP-1’s clinical application. He details the scientific breakthroughs—particularly the isolation and characterization of GLP-1 and its role in regulating insulin and appetite—and explains how early challenges like the hormone’s extremely short half-life were overcome through molecular engineering, culminating in long-acting versions like semaglutide. The conversation explores the transformative impact of these drugs on diabetes and obesity treatment, their unexpected benefits for cardiovascular health and sleep apnea, and the ethical and societal questions they raise, including access, cost, and the risk of weight regain after discontinuation. Holst emphasizes that these drugs should be part of a broader lifestyle intervention and calls for public health systems to ensure equitable access, reflecting his lifelong commitment to research for the people, not just profit.