A New Way To Treat Obesity? Scientists Expose a Secret Appetite-Regulating Circuit in the Brain

Science and Health

Researchers have discovered hypothalamic neurons that regulate appetite and respond to leptin. These neurons, linked to the BNC2 gene, suppress hunger and could provide a target for new obesity treatments.
A previously unknown population of neurons in the hypothalamus may pave the way for new obesity treatments.
Obesity impacts a staggering 40% of adults and 20% of children in the United States. While emerging therapies are making strides in addressing this widespread issue, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the brain-body mechanisms that regulate appetite.
In a breakthrough discovery, researchers have identified a previously unknown group of neurons in the hypothalamus that play a key role in controlling food intake. These neurons may offer a promising target for future obesity treatments.
Published in the December 5 issue of Nature, the study was conducted by a collaborative team from Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, the Institute for Genome Science (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, as well as researchers from New York and Stanford Universities. The team identified a new population of neurons that respond to the hormone leptin. Leptin, a crucial player in hunger regulation, is released by the body’s fat stores and signals the brain to suppress appetite.
Linking Genes, Neurons, and Appetite
“We’ve long known that the hypothalamus—located deep in the brain—plays a role in hunger, hormone levels, stress responses, and body temperature,” said Brian Herb, PhD, a scientist at IGS and a Research Associate of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Drug Development at UMSOM. His research published in 2023 in Science Advances was the first time that scientists used single-cell technology to map the cells in the developing hypothalamus in humans, from precursor stem cells to mature neurons.
“Since our earlier research showed that unique regulatory programs in genes give rise to specialized neuronal populations—it makes sense that this new research discovered a previously unknown set of neurons that regulate energy and food intake,” Dr. Herb added
Through several experiments with mice, the researchers found that this previously unknown neuronal population that express both receptors for leptin and the BNC2 gene not only helps suppress hunger, but also responds to food-related sensory cues, such as food palatability and nutritional status. For example, the researchers used CRISPR-Cas 9 to knock out the leptin receptor (LEPR) in these BNC2 neurons. Those mice ate more and gained more weight than control mice. In addition, researchers added fluorescence to the BNC2 neurons and noticed when they fed mice after fasting, the BCN2 neurons activated, whereas previously known neuronal populations in the hypothalamus did not react.
“These findings add a critical new component to our understanding of how neurons impact appetite and obesity,” Dr. Herb said. “This could be a future target for obesity treatment, such as by activating these neurons to reduce weight or suppress hunger.”
Reference: “Leptin-activated hypothalamic BNC2 neurons acutely suppress food intake” by Han L. Tan, Luping Yin, Yuqi Tan, Jessica Ivanov, Kaja Plucinska, Anoj Ilanges, Brian R. Herb, Putianqi Wang, Christin Kosse, Paul Cohen, Dayu Lin and Jeffrey M. Friedman, 30 October 2024, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08108-2

A New Way To Treat Obesity? Scientists Expose a Secret Appetite-Regulating Circuit in the Brain

Science and Health

Researchers have discovered hypothalamic neurons that regulate appetite and respond to leptin. These neurons, linked to the BNC2 gene, suppress hunger and could provide a target for new obesity treatments.
A previously unknown population of neurons in the hypothalamus may pave the way for new obesity treatments.
Obesity impacts a staggering 40% of adults and 20% of children in the United States. While emerging therapies are making strides in addressing this widespread issue, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the brain-body mechanisms that regulate appetite.
In a breakthrough discovery, researchers have identified a previously unknown group of neurons in the hypothalamus that play a key role in controlling food intake. These neurons may offer a promising target for future obesity treatments.
Published in the December 5 issue of Nature, the study was conducted by a collaborative team from Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, the Institute for Genome Science (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, as well as researchers from New York and Stanford Universities. The team identified a new population of neurons that respond to the hormone leptin. Leptin, a crucial player in hunger regulation, is released by the body’s fat stores and signals the brain to suppress appetite.
Linking Genes, Neurons, and Appetite
“We’ve long known that the hypothalamus—located deep in the brain—plays a role in hunger, hormone levels, stress responses, and body temperature,” said Brian Herb, PhD, a scientist at IGS and a Research Associate of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Drug Development at UMSOM. His research published in 2023 in Science Advances was the first time that scientists used single-cell technology to map the cells in the developing hypothalamus in humans, from precursor stem cells to mature neurons.
“Since our earlier research showed that unique regulatory programs in genes give rise to specialized neuronal populations—it makes sense that this new research discovered a previously unknown set of neurons that regulate energy and food intake,” Dr. Herb added
Through several experiments with mice, the researchers found that this previously unknown neuronal population that express both receptors for leptin and the BNC2 gene not only helps suppress hunger, but also responds to food-related sensory cues, such as food palatability and nutritional status. For example, the researchers used CRISPR-Cas 9 to knock out the leptin receptor (LEPR) in these BNC2 neurons. Those mice ate more and gained more weight than control mice. In addition, researchers added fluorescence to the BNC2 neurons and noticed when they fed mice after fasting, the BCN2 neurons activated, whereas previously known neuronal populations in the hypothalamus did not react.
“These findings add a critical new component to our understanding of how neurons impact appetite and obesity,” Dr. Herb said. “This could be a future target for obesity treatment, such as by activating these neurons to reduce weight or suppress hunger.”
Reference: “Leptin-activated hypothalamic BNC2 neurons acutely suppress food intake” by Han L. Tan, Luping Yin, Yuqi Tan, Jessica Ivanov, Kaja Plucinska, Anoj Ilanges, Brian R. Herb, Putianqi Wang, Christin Kosse, Paul Cohen, Dayu Lin and Jeffrey M. Friedman, 30 October 2024, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08108-2

Give ‘science for peace’ a chance

Science and Health

Military spending is fuelling wars such as the one in Sudan, forcing people to flee.Credit: Luis Tato/AFP/GettyThe fall of the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, which brought widespread joy and optimism, was a rare and welcome development in what has mostly been another devastating year of violence and conflict around the world.Wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan have made the past year one of the deadliest in recent times, according to the latest Armed Conflict Survey (see go.nature.com/3z565x), produced by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), based in London. Worldwide, nearly 200,000 people were killed between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, a 37% rise from the previous 12-month period. Mark Rutte, the former Netherlands prime minister, now head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said last week that NATO must prepare for a “wartime mindset”, and urged member states to allocate more money to military budgets. In 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, world military spending had risen to an all-time high of nearly US$2.5 trillion, the ninth consecutive annual increase (see go.nature.com/4gggmuf). In Africa, military spending was one-fifth higher than it was in 2022. But are more wars inevitable? Why can’t peace be more of a priority? These questions need to be asked, and they make a new initiative called Science 4 Peace Africa all the more timely.What’s next for Syria’s science: a view from Nature’s reporter who was a refugeeAt last week’s African Academy of Sciences (AAS) general assembly in Abuja, Nigeria, Lise Korsten, president of the AAS, which is headquartered in Nairobi, and Sara Clarke-Habibi, a peace-building specialist at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva, Switzerland, outlined a way for the African scientific community to work with stakeholders in the pursuit of peace and in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Korsten and Clarke-Habibi have set themselves a monumental task, and they are asking the right questions. Perhaps most importantly, their plan does not assume that wars are inevitable. Africa’s leaders and their international partners need to sit up and listen to what they are proposing.Science 4 Peace Africa aims to establish the main drivers of conflict in the continent and see how science cooperation can address them. The approach has two aspects: first, specialists across disciplines and sectors, including research, policy and humanitarian relief, will map existing peace-building initiatives that involve the scientific community and highlight future opportunities. This will then feed into more-detailed consultations for each region. The second aspect is capacity-building: the initiative will train students and researchers in using peace-building tools in education and scholarship. “Research, innovation and teaching can actually reinforce conflict drivers when not developed in a conflict-sensitive way,” Clarke-Habibi and Korsten write in the project’s concept note.A fresh start for the African Academy of SciencesThis is important work not just for the knowledge and skills it will generate, but also because it will give scientists visibility in fields in which they can lack influence. Science is often not well represented in diplomacy or peace-building, a point also made in a Communications Engineering comment article published last month (M. M. López et al. Commun. Eng. 3, 159; 2024). The authors of the article say that peace-building efforts are led by people with backgrounds in social and political sciences, law, diplomacy and humanitarian relief. Those with backgrounds in science, engineering and technology need to be among those doing strategic planning. Peace itself is foundational to the SDGs, not least SDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. “When regions are destabilized, research is often interrupted, resources diverted, partnerships falter and knowledge exchange and innovation uptake come to a halt,” say Clarke-Habibi and Korsten.Peace-building organizations such as the Pugwash Conferences on Science in World Affairs were established by scientists in the wake of previous global conflicts. But, they are finding it tough to be heard amid the constant and rising drumbeat of war. The AAS and UNITAR have an innovative plan. It has seed funding from South Africa’s government, and now needs support from other funders and policymakers. There is no law of nature that says that there must be more conflicts and that more people must lose their lives.

Give ‘science for peace’ a chance

Science and Health

Military spending is fuelling wars such as the one in Sudan, forcing people to flee.Credit: Luis Tato/AFP/GettyThe fall of the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, which brought widespread joy and optimism, was a rare and welcome development in what has mostly been another devastating year of violence and conflict around the world.Wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan have made the past year one of the deadliest in recent times, according to the latest Armed Conflict Survey (see go.nature.com/3z565x), produced by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), based in London. Worldwide, nearly 200,000 people were killed between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, a 37% rise from the previous 12-month period. Mark Rutte, the former Netherlands prime minister, now head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said last week that NATO must prepare for a “wartime mindset”, and urged member states to allocate more money to military budgets. In 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, world military spending had risen to an all-time high of nearly US$2.5 trillion, the ninth consecutive annual increase (see go.nature.com/4gggmuf). In Africa, military spending was one-fifth higher than it was in 2022. But are more wars inevitable? Why can’t peace be more of a priority? These questions need to be asked, and they make a new initiative called Science 4 Peace Africa all the more timely.What’s next for Syria’s science: a view from Nature’s reporter who was a refugeeAt last week’s African Academy of Sciences (AAS) general assembly in Abuja, Nigeria, Lise Korsten, president of the AAS, which is headquartered in Nairobi, and Sara Clarke-Habibi, a peace-building specialist at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva, Switzerland, outlined a way for the African scientific community to work with stakeholders in the pursuit of peace and in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Korsten and Clarke-Habibi have set themselves a monumental task, and they are asking the right questions. Perhaps most importantly, their plan does not assume that wars are inevitable. Africa’s leaders and their international partners need to sit up and listen to what they are proposing.Science 4 Peace Africa aims to establish the main drivers of conflict in the continent and see how science cooperation can address them. The approach has two aspects: first, specialists across disciplines and sectors, including research, policy and humanitarian relief, will map existing peace-building initiatives that involve the scientific community and highlight future opportunities. This will then feed into more-detailed consultations for each region. The second aspect is capacity-building: the initiative will train students and researchers in using peace-building tools in education and scholarship. “Research, innovation and teaching can actually reinforce conflict drivers when not developed in a conflict-sensitive way,” Clarke-Habibi and Korsten write in the project’s concept note.A fresh start for the African Academy of SciencesThis is important work not just for the knowledge and skills it will generate, but also because it will give scientists visibility in fields in which they can lack influence. Science is often not well represented in diplomacy or peace-building, a point also made in a Communications Engineering comment article published last month (M. M. López et al. Commun. Eng. 3, 159; 2024). The authors of the article say that peace-building efforts are led by people with backgrounds in social and political sciences, law, diplomacy and humanitarian relief. Those with backgrounds in science, engineering and technology need to be among those doing strategic planning. Peace itself is foundational to the SDGs, not least SDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. “When regions are destabilized, research is often interrupted, resources diverted, partnerships falter and knowledge exchange and innovation uptake come to a halt,” say Clarke-Habibi and Korsten.Peace-building organizations such as the Pugwash Conferences on Science in World Affairs were established by scientists in the wake of previous global conflicts. But, they are finding it tough to be heard amid the constant and rising drumbeat of war. The AAS and UNITAR have an innovative plan. It has seed funding from South Africa’s government, and now needs support from other funders and policymakers. There is no law of nature that says that there must be more conflicts and that more people must lose their lives.

Moral conundrums and more: Books in brief

Arts & Culture, Books

HiroshimaM. G. Sheftall Dutton (2024)Born and educated in the United States, M. G. Sheftall settled in Japan in 1987 to teach modern Japanese cultural history at university. His detailed book on the 1945 US atomic bombing of Hiroshima skilfully integrates science and technology with the human aspects of this horrific event. It stands out because of its interviews with the survivors, most of whom are now over 90 years old. They found a way “to compartmentalize and process their fear, anger, sense of helplessness, and despair” that was not self-destructive.Beautiful New SkyInes Geipel Polity (2024)As an athlete in East Germany, Ines Geipel was subject to covert doping with performance-enhancing drugs by the Communist regime. She’s now a literary academic, and her deeply researched book investigates the regime’s use of covert doping in medicine and in the Soviet space programme to test cosmonauts’ reactions to weightlessness. Through once-confidential military archives and interviews, she reveals that some participating scientists had served under the Nazis, perhaps explaining the programme’s immorality.The Future Loves YouAriel Zeleznikow-Johnston Allen Lane (2024)In 1773, US polymath Benjamin Franklin argued that scientists should try to invent a method of embalming such that a human could be revived in the future. He admitted “a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence”. Neuroscientist Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston thinks that such brain preservation and revival could well become feasible. But his complex book acknowledges this proposition as “scary and disquieting” — requiring us to scrutinize our own mortality, “a deeply unpleasant task”.MatterGuido Tonelli Polity (2024)

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For making a world record how to apply online in Guinness Book?

Arts & Culture, Books

Perhaps you must have heard about the Guinness Book World Record? If you want to register your name in the Guinness Book World Record, what will you have to do? Actually, you have to follow some steps to register your name in the Guinness Book World Record. For this, you have to first go to the Guinness Book website. After going to the Guinness Book website, you have to click on APPLY TO SET OR BREAK A RECORD under RECORDS on the left side.Meanwhile after this, create your account and log in. Choose your category here and click on ‘Apply Now’. Fill the form briefly about your record and submit it, but what will happen after this? Actually, if your application is approved, then you will get an email from the Guinness Book with guidelines to proceed further. By following these guidelines, if your application meets the rules of the Guinness Book, then your name will be recorded in the Guinness Book.Moreover if you are in a hurry, you can fast-track your application by purchasing the Priority application Service (fees apply). Let us tell you that the Guinness Book of World Records is the international authority that verifies the authenticity of setting and breaking records. The Guinness Book of World Records (GWR) is a reference book containing world records related to human achievements and extremes of the natural world around the world. It was founded in 1955 by twin brothers Norris and Ross McWhirter of London. It is one of the best-selling copyrighted books of all time.

The five best non-fiction books of 2024 – according to our experts

Arts & Culture, Books

With Something Good, the arts and culture newsletter from The Conversation UK, we aim to cut through the noise and recommend the very best in new releases every fortnight. In 2024, we’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to recommending non-fiction.

At The Conversation we have experts across all disciplines. Here, a few of them recommended the best books in their field for a general audience. From a book of uncanny AI photography to a book about how to live better with less, we have some great options to fit a wide variety of interests.

Memoir: Melting Point by Rachel Cockerell

Recommended by Jay Prosser, reader in humanities at the University of Leeds.

Iona Wolff/Wildfire

Rachel Cockerell’s Melting Point explodes the genre of memoir. For years, I’ve been teaching my students that memoir needs the author to guide us through their story. Opposed to this, Cockerell removes herself entirely, speaking about her irritation with her “voiceover” in earlier drafts.

Her book instead consists wholly of quotes from diaries, letters, memoirs and articles of those who were there. As in a film (both Cockerell’s parents are documentary filmmakers), the reader experiences events as they happen, and from all sides.

The subject of the memoir is also extraordinary and topical. Through three generations of her family, Cockerell tells the story of Zionism before the Balfour Declaration expressed support for a national homeland for Jews in Palestine. We see how Jews were granted or sought homelands in various outposts, from Galveston, Texas in the US to Angola and Mesopotamia in Iraq. And before our eyes we witness the rising antisemitism, including pogroms, that drove their desperate search.

Politics: London, 1984 by Stephen Brooke

Recommended by Kieran Connell, senior lecturer in contemporary British history at Queen’s University Belfast.

OUP Oxford

Stephen Brooke’s London, 1984: Conflict and Change in the Radical City is a powerful study of a city – and a country – at a political crossroads. During the titular year, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative party continued its momentous break with the postwar consensus in Britain, helping to usher in the profit-obsessed brand of neoliberalism that remains in place today. Brooke’s work homes in on the progressive forms of politics that were nevertheless possible at the time.

His focus is on the struggles Londoners waged against homophobia, racism and other types of discrimination around the world, as well their attempts to bring about better quality housing and childcare provision. While the book might be read as a story about the paths not taken in Britain – the radical Greater London Council was abolished by Thatcher in 1986 – London, 1984 also reminds us of the enduring influence of these struggles, what Brooke calls “the afterlives of social democracy”.

Business and economy: Less by Patrick Grant

Recommended by Olaya Moldes Andres, senior lecturer in marketing and strategy at Cardiff University.

Less, by businessman and Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant, explores the history of UK manufacturing and the evolution of consumption and production.

It threads together Grant’s experience of the clothing business with his reflections on the contemporary fashion industry. His passion for high-quality durable items inspires us to learn more about the materials, origins and stories of the objects we own and buy. And it leaves us reflecting on the human side of businesses and the joy of creating, repairing and using good-quality products.

Grant not only advocates for a different way of thinking about business, away from profit-driven models, but his own entrepreneurial experience also demonstrates that it is possible to create meaningful jobs, build communities and revitalise UK cities that lost their sense of purpose as manufacturing moved overseas.

Grant convincingly argues that “living with less but better would make us healthier, wealthier (comparatively) and happier”. So convincingly, in fact, that I am adding his book to the reading list for a module I teach.

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

Art: Cursed by Charlie Engman

By Julia Johnson, senior lecturer in photography at Anglia Ruskin University.

Charlie Engman

In Cursed, photographer Charlie Engman uses generative AI’s uncanny distortions to explore the pleasure, humour and horror of the body. His uncomfortable, unattractive and surreal images of people, animals and illogically composed items look at times like banal TV stills. Subjects stare out bleakly, colours range from flesh-toned neutrals to muted fluorescents. Certain textures look edible and revolting.

The book explores the larger questions its uncanny art poses. Engman seemingly reveals the problems that have always existed in photographic representation, around its presentation, its authenticity and the ethics of subject participation and consent. It also forces readers to tackle the preconceptions of how the world should be and appear.

As is often the case when I encounter a new photography book, I was hit by the paper’s aroma. On this occasion, it reminded me of a live culture (dairy?) that had just gone off. The aroma certainly juxtaposes with the uber-contemporary, visual aesthetic. It’s a visceral and confronting experience on many levels.

Environment: The Lie of the Land by Guy Shrubsole

By Christopher Rodgers, emeritus professor of law at Newcastle University.

Guy Shrubsole/William Collins

Britain’s natural environment is depleted and, despite nascent government schemes to manage the land differently, struggling to recover from centuries of destruction – plus new threats like climate change. What if the biggest obstacles to its recovery are the people we have trusted to look after it?

In The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside? author and green campaigner Guy Shrubsole argues that antiquated property rights give landowners absolute authority over most of Britain’s land. Missing from this arrangement are properly enforced obligations to steward the country’s biodiversity and carbon sinks in the interests of everyone, including future generations.

In Shrubsole’s eyes, the greatest “lie of the land” is the idea that you have to own land to care for it. In other words, that private property is the only way that people can steward the land and care for its long-term benefit. He makes a case for modelling land reform in England and Wales on the Scottish system, where a public right to access all freehold land is enshrined in law. The advantage, according to Shrubsole, is twofold: more eyes and ears monitoring what is happening on private land and a chance to reconnect people and nature.

Femina’s Fab 65: Dr Gagandeep Kang, Biomedical Scientist

Science and Health

Femina’s Fab 65 for 2024Think you need everyday motivation from an app? We bring you better – we bring you the journeys of 65 fabulous women. Be inspired by their trials and tribulations. They have broken barriers, bent rules and marched ahead towards their goal. They have had a cracking year, and are looking forward to going that one step further to do better in the future! From our active president to dynamic doctors, from the industry’s top actors to athletes who put the country on the international map, from responsible entrepreneurs to bold creators and more, let’s celebrate them all…Dr Gagandeep KangBiomedical ScientistShe’s not called India’s ‘Vaccine Godmother’ for nothing! Dr Gagandeep Kang started her work on diarrhoea diseases and public health in the 1990s. She has been a key contributor to the epidemiology and vaccinology of rotavirus in India. Combining field epidemiology with intensive laboratory investigations that focused on enteric infections and nutrition in children in disadvantaged communities, she has elucidated not just the science of infectious diseases but also helped shape policy. Dr Gagandeep’s comprehensive research on rotavirus has been crucial in demonstrating the burden of the disease across India, encouraging research to enhance the performance of oral vaccines.

Femina’s Fab 65: Dr Gagandeep Kang, Biomedical Scientist

Science and Health

Femina’s Fab 65 for 2024Think you need everyday motivation from an app? We bring you better – we bring you the journeys of 65 fabulous women. Be inspired by their trials and tribulations. They have broken barriers, bent rules and marched ahead towards their goal. They have had a cracking year, and are looking forward to going that one step further to do better in the future! From our active president to dynamic doctors, from the industry’s top actors to athletes who put the country on the international map, from responsible entrepreneurs to bold creators and more, let’s celebrate them all…Dr Gagandeep KangBiomedical ScientistShe’s not called India’s ‘Vaccine Godmother’ for nothing! Dr Gagandeep Kang started her work on diarrhoea diseases and public health in the 1990s. She has been a key contributor to the epidemiology and vaccinology of rotavirus in India. Combining field epidemiology with intensive laboratory investigations that focused on enteric infections and nutrition in children in disadvantaged communities, she has elucidated not just the science of infectious diseases but also helped shape policy. Dr Gagandeep’s comprehensive research on rotavirus has been crucial in demonstrating the burden of the disease across India, encouraging research to enhance the performance of oral vaccines.

Bricks power a gleaming St. Louis in this science fiction author’s novels

Science and Health

The intersection of Grand Boulevard and Gravois Avenue is an unexceptional corner for most people traveling through south St. Louis.For the characters in Eric von Schrader’s trilogy of science fiction novels, the spot is a portal to a different St. Louis, in a parallel universe — a place teeming with happy tourists, lined by gleaming skyscrapers and powered by energy-trapping bricks.Von Schrader, a St. Louis native who now lives in California, looked around at the city and spun many of its locations and people into the reimagined version of St. Louis that embodies some of his hopes for the city’s future.The Intersecting Universe trilogy includes “A Universe Less Traveled,” “A Universe Disrupted” and “A Universe Revealed.” Von Schrader, 75, published the last book earlier this year. He released the audiobook, produced locally by Dogtown Records & Entertainment, earlier this month.St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy D. Goodwin asked von Schrader to describe how bits and pieces of St. Louis morphed into the fanciful version in his novels.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Jeremy D. Goodwin: What is it about St. Louis that made you want to write a novel based here?Eric von Schrader: I’ve spent a lot of time in all the neighborhoods of St. Louis. And I’ve always been fascinated by the history and, in some ways, the disappointments of St Louis — the faded glory of many parts of St Louis. I’ve always thought it is a fascinating story.I lived for many years in the South Grand neighborhood. So that’s why South Grand and the Tower Grove Park area factors a lot in my books, because I lived there for many years and always thought it was a fascinating place.Goodwin: There’s a spot where your protagonist discovers a portal into the alternate version of St. Louis in a parallel universe — the corner of Grand Boulevard and Gravois. Why’d you pick that specific location?Von Schrader: There’s a 12- or 13-story building there that was originally the South Side National Bank building. I believe it’s now condos. And I always thought, ‘What the heck is this doing here? It has nothing to do with anything around it. How did this building get here?’ And that the corner always fascinated me. It’s two streets crossing, and if you go either direction, up Gravois or a little bit down Grand, the whole area is kind of run-down and kind of forgotten. This should be an intersection of amazing boulevards in a city. So it just came to me that, ‘Well, I think that’s where he’s going to find his way into this other universe.’Goodwin: Readers of the Intersecting Worlds trilogy are taken to an alternate St. Louis that you call HD St. Louis, like high definition. Is HD St. Louis your picture of what you’d like the city to be?Von Schrader: In a lot of ways, yes. Doing this gave me a vehicle to imagine: ‘What would the coolest possible St. Louis look like, and how would that work? What if people from around the world clamored to come to St. Louis because of the amazing festivals and events that are happening all the time?’When it’s hot in the St Louis summer, people turn their air conditioners on and stay inside and watch TV, and they’re not out mingling and involved with each other. So I turned that around and made it where in this place people are always out mingling and involved with each other. And from the viewpoint of my main character who discovers this place, it blows his mind.Goodwin: How do St. Louis bricks factor into the story?Von Schrader: There’s a St. Louis brick company that was actually a real company called Hydraulic Bricks, which was begun in the 19th century. In my fantasy, it is one of the biggest companies in the world. And how do they get to be that way? They discovered a technology where they figured out how to generate electricity with bricks. So in this alternate world, this brick energy technology powers the world.And then later I found out that actually there’s real research into doing some things kind of similar to that. And some of that work was being done in Washington University. I did not know that when I wrote the book.Goodwin: Are there pieces of HD St. Louis that you think our real world might head toward?Von Schrader: I’m hopeful that if St. Louis isn’t so negative about itself, it could become more of a magnet for younger people who are creative, to start businesses or do bands and music and culture. I think there’s an opportunity for that.