Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston revealed on Wednesday that a protein, which causes bone growth also helps promote development of “good” brown fat tissue in mice.

At the same time another team of researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said they used a single molecular switch to turn immature muscle cells into brown fat cells in the lab, suggesting that brown fat may be more akin to muscle cells than conventional white fat cells.

Both teams reported in the journal Nature that their new findings lend to the understanding of the origins of brown fat, which releases energy, in contrast to conventional white fat, which stores energy.

There are two main types of fat cells in the body, white and brown, explained study author Yu-Hua Tseng, an assistant investigator in Joslin’s Section on Obesity and Hormone Action.

“White fat cells are the ‘conventional’ form of fat designed to store energy. By contrast, the main role of brown fat is to burn calories by generating heat. Brown fat cells largely disappear by adulthood in humans, but their precursors still remain the body,” Tseng said in a Joslin news release.

Now the researchers are hoping that they could find a means to combat obesity by coaxing the body into making more calorie-burning brown fat.