Obesity

Obesity and its complications are major threats to current and future human health, and is a leading cause of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases. ӳ��ý researchers aim to find the genes and biological circuits that underlie body shape and size and mediate obesity's health effects.

Credit: Margo Emont

Obesity - a microscopic view of tissue, showing different cell types and structures within adipose tissue

More than 40 percent of American adults — and nearly 20 percent of American children — are considered obese. There are many reasons why some people become obese while others remain lean, why fat is stored in different parts of their bodies, and how a person's distribution of fat affects their risk of chronic disease, but both genetic and environmental factors play crucial roles.

Researchers at ӳ��ý are exploring the biology and impacts of obesity from a variety of angles. By employing a wide range of sequencing, functional, imaging, computational, and chemical technologies together with massive collections of human genetic and health data, ӳ��ý scientists are teasing apart the complex collection of states and circuits that regulate cells' storage and use of fat, linking genetics to cellular mechanisms to specific cells, tissues, and organs. That knowledge informs how we think about the relationships between obesity, metabolism, and disease, and accelerates the discovery of new targets for therapeutic development.