SyNergy member Matthias Tschöp is known for his breakthrough research in diabetes and obesity. He has revealed key elements of the gut-brain axis and its role to regulate body weight and metabolism enabling the development of several novel classes of drug candidates to prevent or reverse diabetes, obesity and metabolic diseases. He discovered that the gastric peptide ghrelin can function as a "hunger hormone" that drives appetite and food intake after food restriction. In close collaboration with Richard DiMarchi, he developed novel unimolecular combination therapeutics which show metabolic benefits in preclinical models and in early clinical trials.