Obesity at the Source Code: Lilly’s Gene Editing Ambition Could Change Everything

If obesity really is a disease, what happens when the cure isn’t a drug, but a line of code?

We're standing at the precipice of a renaissance in obesity medicine

For most of modern medicine, obesity has been treated like a personal failure.

Too many calories, not enough willpower.

Too much shame, not enough science.

And for a long time, we patients believed it. We were told we did this to ourselves, and we carried that burden. Some of us still do. The failed crash diets, the soul crushing weigh-ins, the silent prayers for supernatural strength that would make this time end differently.

But the real shift, the real Renaissance, began when a handful of researchers and physicians partnered with organizations like The Obesity Society and dared to look deeper.

They were the pioneers who first chose to stop blaming the patients who were giving it their everything, and started asking better questions.What if this wasn’t about behavior at all?

What if the problem wasn’t rooted first in our choices, but in our biology?What if obesity wasn’t a symptom of failure, but a disease?

That question cracked the door open. And the flood of answers hasn’t stopped since.

Bariatric surgery and GLP-1 medications were the first breakthrough for many of us. These weren’t just suppressing appetite. They were regulating metabolism, and restoring hormonal balance. These treatments target the real systems driving hunger, insulin resistance, and fat storage.

But Eli Lilly’s next move? It goes further than treatment. It goes to the source.

A Future Beyond Medication

In the last few months, Lilly has been laying the foundation for a future that doesn’t just manage obesity, it could aim to prevent it.

Their $856M partnership with Gate Bioscience is focused on molecular gates, a new cellular technology that stops harmful proteins before they ever exit the cell. If those proteins trigger inflammation, insulin resistance, or weight gain, they never make it out. The damage is stopped before it starts.

But that’s just one piece of the puzzle.

Lilly has also acquired Verve Therapeutics, a leader in gene editing. Verve’s work has centered on cardiovascular disease, While Eli Lilly has not publicly stated that it plans to combine Verve Therapeutics’ gene-editing technology with retatrutide or its GLP-1-based therapies, recent moves suggest a broader strategy aimed at transforming the treatment of cardiometabolic disease.

In June 2023, Lilly partnered with Verve to explore in vivo gene editing for cardiovascular targets like PCSK9 and ANGPTL3, genes tied to cholesterol and lipid metabolism. This complements Lilly’s expanding portfolio of metabolic drugs, including retatrutide, a triple hormone receptor agonist

currently showing promise in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

While there is no direct confirmation of integrating gene editing with GLP-1 therapies, the alignment of these investments suggests Lilly may be building toward a multi-modal treatment approach, using short-acting therapies like GLP-1s alongside potential one-time gene editing treatments for durable metabolic control.

Couple all this with Lilly’s massive investments in Ai by way of partnerships with XtalPi and Verge Genomics, and the timeline for all of this is teed up become a reality much sooner than previously thought possible.

We were excited to share these partnerships two years ago, imagining where this could lead, and the whole story is starting to coming together in an amazing way. Check this video out from two years ago when the XtalPi partnership was announced:

The implication is staggering: obesity might one day be intercepted at the genetic level, rewritten at its source, in our lifetime.

This isn’t just about better medication. This is about asking the biggest possible question:What if obesity was never your fault? What if it was coded into your DNA?And what if, finally, we had a way to change that?

This Isn’t Speculation. This Is Progress.

The science is finally catching up with the suffering.

We now know that obesity isn’t a moral failing. It is a medical condition. And the more we understand it, the more targeted and transformational our treatments become.

Lilly’s work with gene editing and molecular gatekeeping doesn’t just offer hope. It sends a message to the world:This is not your fault.You didn’t fail.Your biology was broken.

Only now, are we finally learning to read the code, and maybe even rewrite it.

The future is bright, and I can’t wait to get there, together.

If This Hits You in the Gut, You’re Not Alone

If you’ve ever walked out of a doctor’s office more ashamed than informed,if you’ve ever looked in the mirror and wondered why you couldn’t just fix it,if you’ve carried blame that was never yours to hold...

Share this.

Invite someone to check out OTP who still believes obesity is a choice.Send this to a provider who needs to see how far the science has come.Let the world see that the science has changed, and the stigma must go with it.

Stay tuned to OnThePen.com for more updates and in-depth analysis on the latest developments in weight loss and diabetes treatments. Sharing this article is a powerful form of advocacy that brings us closer to our goal of educating the masses and reducing the stigma of obesity. If you found this article insightful, please share it within your networks, especially in Facebook groups and Reddit forums dedicated to GLP-1 medications and diabetes management. Together, we can make a difference.