Obesity has become highly prevalent in the human population, and obesity enhances the risk for developing a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, brain dysfunction, inflammation, and cancer. However, it is unclear what determines which obese individual will go on to develop one of these diseases and which one will not. Our study aims at identifying genetic and lifestyle factors that regulate an individual’s path to health or disease. This study, which we estimate to run for three years, will enable us to develop simple tests to predict an individual’s risk for developing obesity-associated diseases. It will also greatly enhance our basic understanding of the factors that work together with obesity in enhancing the disease risk in various tissues of the human body.
