Metabolic diseases, e.g. obesity and type 2 diabetes, pose a major challenge on public health. They increase all-cause mortality largely from micro- and macrovascular complications and contribute to multiple other morbidities, including inflammatory, immune, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the risk of metabolic diseases and their complications and comorbidities.
However, the specific genetic mechanisms and gene-environment interactions have not been fully elucidated for these metabolic diseases and their complications and comorbidities. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified genetic variants for these metabolic diseases. But each variant usually confers a relatively small effect on the risk of diseases and its underlying molecular mechanisms remains unexplored.
We aim to identify novel biomarkers for prevention and prediction of metabolic diseases, e.g. obesity and type 2 diabetes, and their cardiovascular complications and comorbidities with inflammatory, immune, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. Specifically, we will uncover both genetic and non-genetic markers (e.g. lifestyles, metabolic and proteomic factors) for obesity and type 2 diabetes. We will also explore common genetic components, biological pathways, molecular mechanisms shared among metabolic diseases and their micro- and macrovascular complications and comorbidities including inflammatory, immune, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. We will take advantage of the identified biomarkers to characterize the observed heterogeneity in metabolic diseases and evaluate the influence of the heterogeneity on disease comorbidities and complications.
