Training in Obesity Research

PROJECT SUMMARY Obesity is a chronic disease that affects more than 650 million adults and more than one in five children worldwide. Obesity is also a serious risk factor for type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension, at least 13 cancers, thus it has a significant impact on public health. Pharmacological and surgical interventions show promising weight loss and remission of co-morbidities, yet maintaining weight loss over the long-term remains extremely challenging. Therefore, obesity warrants heightened attention from enhanced research as does the underlying pathophysiology of body weight regulation, appetite, metabolism, weight loss, and weight loss maintenance. It is paramount that a highly skilled workforce of curious and team- oriented scientists of varying disciplines emerge to tackle the complex issues surrounding the biology, prevention, and treatment of obesity. For the past 20 years, this T32 postdoctoral training program has trained the highest caliber of postdoctoral fellows to become productive research scientists in obesity with established successful scientific careers in academia, academic medicine, governmental agencies, and in the private sector. The five fundamental goals of our program are to: 1) recruit and retain talented postdoctoral scientists who want to become experts in obesity research; 2) connect talented trainees with an experienced, NIH- funded faculty member and a multidisciplinary mentoring team of expert research scientists; 3) ensure that trainees take advantage of all elements of a structured training program that includes a robust research experience, completion of coursework in obesity science and practice, competing for internal pilot and feasibility grants, responsible conduct of research, and methods for enhancing reproducibility training; 4) support trainees to be productive scientists with their own high level of expertise in obesity research and ability to secure independent grant funding; 5) prepare trainees to find research positions in academics, industry or equivalent where they will remain productive and gain national support for their own research programs. The program takes advantage of the rich intellectual environment, cutting-edge technologies, core services, and the wide range of research endeavors related to obesity at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. During their 2 years of training, postdoctoral trainees engage in didactic training as well as in-depth, hands-on research that will enable postdoctoral trainees to acquire transdisciplinary research skills, write papers, and write competitive grant proposals addressing important questions on pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of obesity. These endeavors will train the next generation of scientists who will move the needle forward on obesity science answering a need that has both national and international urgency.