UT Southwestern Medical Center has been selected to be one of 12 NIH Nutrition Obesity Research Centers in the nation, and the only one in Texas, to investigate the causes, prevention, and treatment options for obesity.
Texas has an obesity rate amongst adults of 34%. One in three Texans has a BMI of 30 or higher.
More than 150 UT Southwestern scientists across dozens of departments in fields ranging from metabolism to genetics will be part of the National Institutes of Health-funded, university-wide interdisciplinary research center.
UT Southwestern will receive $6.15 million in grant funding over five years.
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"The UT Southwestern Nutrition Obesity Research Center provides an important mechanism to accelerate translation of basic scientific discoveries into clinically relevant interventions to improve public health," said Jay Horton, M.D., Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at UT Southwestern and Director of the new Nutrition Obesity Research Center.
