Genetics Program Area
Obesity is an exceptionally complex disorder, with contributions from multifactorial genetic susceptibility and interacting environmental factors. Similar to low penetrance cancer susceptibility genes, predisposition to obesity results from combinations of relatively small effects of genetic variations within a large number of quantitative trait loci (QTL). While molecular biology has yielded advancements in understanding weight regulation at the metabolic and physiological levels (e.g., leptin, melanocortin, and insulin pathways), the genetic architecture of obesity remains essentially undefined. Only a few isolated cases of obesity in humans can be attributed to mutations within genes exerting effects in well-characterized energy-balance pathways. This alarming gap between our knowledge of physiological mechanisms underlying obesity and the nature of genetic predisposition to obesity is an important problem, because it impairs the ability to identify relevant QTL. This, in turn, limits gene-based advancements in the development of tools for diagnosing, treating, and eventually preventing obesity and related maladies.
Members of this program area are:
|
Kari North Head, Epidemiology |
genetic epidemiology, CVD and diabetes in relation to obesity |
| Guang Guo Sociology |
gene-environment interactions |
| Ethan Lange Genetics |
statistical genetics |
| Leslie Lange Genetics |
genetics of complex diseases, genetics of chronic inflammation, cardiovascular disease, asthma |
| Karen Mohlke Genetics |
genetics of Type 2 diabetes mellitus |
| Daniel Pomp Nutrition |
animal models and genetics |
| David Threadgill Genetics |
mouse genetics, cancer and obesity |
| Fred Wright Biostatistics |
statistics, statistical genetics |
