This study is facilitated by the a vailability of special human populations that are unusually susceptible to developing insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome. Lipodystrophy Project Lipodystrophy represents a unique form of the metabolic syndrome. Center investigators have made fundamental contributions to the understanding of the genetic basis of lipodystrophy. This research should provide new insights into the overall genetic causation of the metabolic syndrome. The research efforts in the Center can be conveniently grouped together under the heading of the metabolic syndrome.
Human nutrition sustains human metabolism.
The Center's research aims to use nutrition to optimize the body's metabolism. The metabolic syndrome represents a derangement in the body's metabolism brought about by inappropriate nutrition, increasing obesity, physical inactivity, and inherited factors. The faculty of the Center are the recipients of a grant award from the National Institutes of Health to develop new ways to improve nutrition education in academic medical centers. One major aim is to improve the teaching of nutrition to medical students. The Center for Human Nutrition joins 16 other medical schools in the United States to develop new approaches to nutrition education.