Scientists discovered more than 3,800 small proteins involved in metabolism and found that one microprotein, Gm8773, increases feeding activity in mice—providing a potential new approach to encourage weight gain in people with cancer and other diseases.

“We’ve provided a roadmap on how to best use our data to link and eventually characterize the roles of microproteins in fundamental metabolic pathways,” says first author Thomas Martínez, a former postdoctoral fellow in Saghatelian’s lab who is now an assistant professor at UC Irvine.

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