Metabolic diseases in humans are dramatically on the rise; obesity and related diseases in particular represent a serious challenge to future health systems. Several groups addressed the complex genetics of metabolic functions and disorders using different mouse GRPs. Gudrun Brockmann reported on the mapping of QTLs for obesity in a specific mouse strain isolated in Berlin and the BXD congenic strain set (Neuschl et al. 2010) . The future goal is to relate these QTLs to genetic polymorphisms that influence the immune system. Joan Campbell-Tofte presented the use of herbal extracts for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in humans. She nicely illustrated the use of mouse models: from human to mouse to humans and back to the mouse. Pénélope Andreux reported on the setting up of a mouse clinic in Lausanne for a systematic analysis of mouse GRPs for a large number of metabolic phenotypes, including mitochondrial functions (Koutnikova et al. 2009 ). Juan M. Falcon-Perez described the genomic, proteomic, and metabolic phenotyping capabilities of their technological platform and introduced extracellular microvesicles and metabolomic profiles as two new biological sources for identifying biomarkers for the detection and monitoring of hepatic diseases (Hackenberg et al. 2009 ). Abnormalities and diseases of the liver are also the subject of studies presented by Karl Kashofer (Kashofer et al. 2009 ). Several loci for (nonalcoholic) steatohepatitis have been mapped in chromosome substitution strains, and a more detailed mapping in subcongenic strains is ongoing.