Obesity

  • Vanderbilt University

    Diabetes Day spotlights achievements, current investigations

    Today, the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center includes 140 faculty members from 15 departments and three colleges or schools at Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical College who conduct basic, clinical and translational research on the cause, prevention, treatment and complications of diabetes and obesity. Read More

    Jun. 12, 2024

  • Vanderbilt University

    Obesity-cancer connection discovery suggests strategies for improving immunotherapy

    The study reported in the journal Nature provides a mechanistic explanation for the “obesity paradox” — that obesity can contribute to cancer progression but also improve response to immunotherapy. Read More

    Jun. 12, 2024

  • Vanderbilt University

    Lab-to-Table Conversation: ‘The Impact of Obesity on Health’ Nov. 30

    Obesity is a well-known risk factor for diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. However, it is often considered to be a risk factor brought on by choice, or by inaction. This stigma, in combination with body image norms, oversimplifies obesity as it also complicates how individuals and society… Read More

    Nov. 22, 2022

  • Headshot of Wenbiao Chen.

    Immune cells drive beta cell loss in Type 2 diabetes

    Obesity and overnutrition increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes through several mechanisms. One of these is through loss of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreatic islet.  Wenbiao Chen, PhD, and colleagues previously have shown that overnutrition stressed the endoplasmic reticulum, the part of the beta… Read More

    Sep. 8, 2022

  • Vanderbilt University

    Weight cycling increases diabetes risk

    Alyssa Hasty, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, specializes in immunometabolism, specifically on the role that the immune system plays in obesity and metabolic disease. Recent work from her lab explored the changes in immune cell populations in fat during obesity, weight loss, and weight cycling. The work,… Read More

    Jul. 19, 2022

  • Vanderbilt University

    Study sheds light on the dark side of obesity

    Obesity is an inflammatory condition that can damage tissues throughout the body, resulting in increased risk for cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and possibly kidney disease. The agents of inflammation are immune cells called macrophages, which accumulate in fatty tissue, and which produce inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. But… Read More

    May. 17, 2022

  • Headshot of Sheila Collins in black top (left), and Ryan Ceddia waring a white lab coat.

    Finding a resistance to obesity

    By Wendy Bindeman L-R: Sheila Collins, Ryan Ceddia A trans-institutional team that includes Professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Sheila Collins, first author and Collins lab postdoc Ryan Ceddia, and Johns Hopkins collaborators Dr. David Kass and Sumita Mishra recently published a study showing that mice lacking an… Read More

    Nov. 9, 2021

  • Headshot of Sheila Collins wearing a black top.

    A new regulator of fat metabolism

    By Wendy Bindeman Sheila Collins, professor of medicine. Sheila Collins, who is a professor of medicine and has a secondary appointment in molecular physiology and biophysics, first author Fubiao Shi, a postdoctoral fellow in the Collins lab, and colleagues have recently identified the transcription factor PPARγ as a novel regulator… Read More

    Nov. 3, 2021