Switching off the FNIP1 gene protects against metabolic disease

05 August 2026

A study of more than one million people shows that rare genetic variants that disrupt the FNIP1 gene are associated with a favourable metabolic profile and a roughly 60% lower risk of cardiometabolic disease than the general population. Silencing genes in the FNIP1 pathway in mice induces fat breakdown and reproduces the metabolic benefits associated with the variants in humans.

This is a summary of: Hindy, G. et al. FNIP1 variants are associated with favourable metabolism in 1 million humans. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10864-2 (2026).

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02391-x‘Expert opinion’ is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence and Figure 1 is published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

ReferencesNaghavi, M. et al. Lancet 403, 2100–2132 (2024).Article