Did the Stanford BRP study show that it cuts appetite? In animals, yes. According to the Stanford Medicine release, one muscle injection of BRP cut food intake by up to 50% over the next hour in lean mice and minipigs, and obese mice given daily injections for 14 days lost about 3 grams while untreated mice gained about 3 grams. Every result comes from animals, and BRP has not been tested in people, so this is an early research step, not a result you can apply to yourself.
What did the Stanford BRP study test, and what did it find?
BRP is a 12-amino-acid peptide. A peptide is a short chain of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The team did not sort proteins by hand. They used a computer method called Peptide Predictor, which scanned about 20,000 human protein-coding genes for sites where prohormone convertase 1/3 would cut them. Prohormone convertase 1/3 is an enzyme that splits larger precursor proteins into smaller pieces. Filters narrowed the search to 373 prohormones, which could yield 2,683 peptides. Of those, 100 were tested in cells; GLP-1 raised neuronal activity threefold and BRP raised it tenfold, according to the release. Neuronal activity means activity in nerve cells.
The table follows the work from lab cells to animals.
| Stage | What was tested | Result reported |
|---|---|---|
| Lab-grown nerve cells | 100 peptides screened, with GLP-1 included as a comparison | GLP-1 raised neuronal activity threefold; BRP raised it tenfold |
| Lean mice and minipigs | One muscle (intramuscular) injection of BRP before feeding | Food intake fell by up to 50% over the following hour |
| Obese mice | Daily injections for 14 days | BRP-treated mice lost about 3 grams on average, while untreated mice gained about 3 grams. Nearly all of the loss was fat, not muscle. Glucose and insulin tolerance improved. |
| Mice and minipigs, behavior checks | Movement, water intake, anxiety-related behavior and fecal (stool) output compared with controls | No significant differences from controls in any of these measures |
Is BRP the same as Ozempic?
Not in how it works, according to Katrin Svensson, PhD, an assistant professor of pathology at Stanford and the study’s senior author. She says semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic, acts on receptors in the brain, gut, pancreas and other tissues. BRP appears to act in the hypothalamus, the brain region that controls appetite and metabolism.
“Natural Ozempic” is a headline phrase in the release, not a product category. The Stanford Report reprint on Palo Alto Online says BRP “appears similar to semaglutide” in suppressing appetite and reducing body weight in animals. Whether people would see comparable effects is still open.
What side effects were seen in the animal studies?
In the behavior checks, mice and minipigs showed no significant differences from controls in movement, water intake, anxiety-related behavior or fecal output. Nausea is different. The release says nausea cannot be judged from animals, so these checks say nothing about it in people. Human side effects are not yet known, and the release says clinical trials must establish safety, effectiveness and dose. For a sense of how side effects are described for a human medical procedure, Harvard Health’s article says prostate biopsy side effects are common, a point also made on the matching Harvard Health page. Why animal results do not carry over directly to people is covered in understanding clinical study design.
How far is BRP from being a treatment?
The release places BRP at the research stage and lists these limits:
- All results come from lean mice, minipigs and obese mice. Whether people would see comparable effects is still open.
- The food intake result covers the hour after a single injection.
- The weight result covers 14 days of daily injections in obese mice.
- Nausea cannot be judged from animals.
- The receptors that recognize BRP have not been identified.
- Peptides break down quickly, so a longer-lasting version may be needed.
- Clinical trials must establish safety, effectiveness and dose.
The Palo Alto reprint says the researchers are working to identify the cell-surface receptors that bind BRP and to make its effects last longer. For a wider look at how peptide studies are read, see do peptides work evidence.
Can you buy BRP, or get it from food?
No. The release says BRP is not a drug or supplement available to people. It was found by computer search, and the release describes it as a human-derived peptide, not an herb or supplement. The ScienceDaily reproduction of the Stanford Medicine release does not name a food source for BRP.
The name BRP is also used for an unrelated bacterial protein. A 1992 bacteriocin study on PubMed covers the bacteriocin release protein in E. coli bacteria, not the human peptide in the Stanford work.
Can you raise your own BRP levels?
The release does not describe any way to raise BRP levels in a person. The only route used in the study was a muscle injection given to animals.
Who ran the study, and who has a stake in it?
The study was published in Nature in March 2025, according to the Palo Alto reprint. Laetitia Coassolo, PhD, led the research, and Katrin Svensson, PhD, is the senior author. Co-researchers came from UC Berkeley, the University of Minnesota and the University of British Columbia. Funding includes the NIH, Stanford programs, the American Heart Association and the Carlsberg Foundation.
Svensson and Coassolo are named inventors on patents on BRP peptides for metabolic disorders. Svensson co-founded Merrifield Therapeutics to advance BRP toward human trials, and the company plans to launch clinical trials in humans in the near future. For how funding and patents can bear on a study, see research funding and conflicts of interest.
By ClinicalStudyConnect.com Research Desk
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult your doctor or qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine.