With a monthly course of the synthetic weight loss drug, Ozempic costing upward of $1,000 per month without insurance, news that researchers at Stanford harnessed AI to locate a natural compound that could lead to new drugs is welcome news. But what exactly what is this molecule, and how did AI help to identify it?
The discovery of the organic compound was first unveiled as the results of a March 2025 study, which looked at peptide hormones and the effects on energy regulation. During the study, experts programmed AI to map peptide fragments and found that a 12-amino-acid molecule, labeled “BRP” acted in a distinct, but similar way to semaglutide, potentially offering an even more targeted approach to dropping fat.
“The receptors targeted by semaglutide are found in the brain but also in the gut, pancreas and other tissues,” explained Katrin Svensson, PhD, who is an assistant professor of pathology at Stanford, and was the lead author of the breakthrough study. “That’s why Ozempic has widespread effects, including slowing the movement of food through the digestive tract and lowering blood sugar levels. In contrast, BRP appears to act specifically in the hypothalamus, which controls appetite and metabolism.”
How AI Discovered a Natural Molecule Associated with Weight Loss
AI drastically accelerated the identification of BRP thanks to it’s superior processing power, because traditional methods of protein isolation face difficulties with distinguishing peptide hormones (which are relatively rare) from the more prevalent natural byproducts of protein degradation and processing. The researchers had designed a new algorithm that inspected 20,000 protein-coding genes, narrowing the field down to 373 prohormones containing 2,683 peptides. The team then focused on peptide sequences that were likely to be bioactive in the brain, just like GLP-1 drugs, and screened 100 such peptides.
When the researchers put BRP to the test on lean mice and miniature pigs (which more closely mirror human eating and digestion than mice), they discovered that an intramuscular injection of BRP, prior to feeding, reduced food intake over the next hour by up to 50% in both animal models, meaning that with less energy consumed, fat levels would decrease with repeat treatments. Further studies of physiological and brain activity illustrated that BRP activates metabolic and neuronal pathways in these animals that are different from those activated by GLP-1 or semaglutide.
What’s the Next Stage for BRP?
Following the study’s promising results, Svensson soon co-founded a company to launch clinical trials of the molecule. But before it can be released to humans, further work is now underway to investigating how to help BRP’s effects last longer, to allow a more convenient dosing schedule, should this peptide prove to be effective in regulating human body weight.
BRP’s results on humans is yet to be published, but while there is no firm date for its release confirmed as of now, the synergy between human scientists and AI could prove to be a gamechanger. While Ozempic is a synthetic medication, the discovery of more natural molecules like BRP could provide a more natural, and potentially cheaper approach.
“The lack of effective drugs to treat obesity in humans has been a problem for decades,” said Svensson. “Nothing we’ve tested before has compared to semaglutide’s ability to decrease appetite and body weight. We are very eager to learn if (BRP) is safe and effective in humans.”
