This application is to support Phase III of the COBRE-supported Diabetes and Obesity Center at the University of Louisville. The Center was established in 2008, with the central objective of supporting molecular, cellular, experimental, translational, and clinical investigations into the cardiovascular causes and consequences of diabetes and obesity. During Phase I and II, the Center underwent phenomenal growth. It has facilitated the career development of junior investigators, provided core support to investigators involved in diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular research, and has provided training and mentorship to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The goal in Phase III is to provide sustainable core support to Center investigators and strengthen diabetes and obesity research at the institution; to maintain and enhance state-of-the-art infrastructure, foster research and support basic and translational research within the thematic focus of the Center. In Phase III, the Center will support 5 Cores – Core A: An Administrative Core, Core B: Flow Cytometry Core, Core C, Pathology and Bioanalytics Core, Core D: Animal Models and Phenotyping Core, and Core E: Imaging and Physiology Core. The Center will also support a Pilot Project Program to stimulate new research by providing seed funding to promising projects that could obtain extramural funding. The Center provides unique opportunities for research in the areas of cardiovascular metabolism, inflammation and cardiometabolic disease, stem cell biology, and environmental determinants of cardiometabolic disease. A dynamic, self-sustaining Diabetes and Obesity Center at the University of Louisville will not only provide fertile ground for innovative studies in the area of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular research, but it will enable the institution to become an enduring hub of learning, mentoring, training, and fostering academic excellence.

This project is to support core services and pilot funding for promising projects as the Diabetes and Obesity Center at the University of Louisville. Diabetes and obesity as well as their cardiovascular complications are the leading causes of death worldwide and their increase has reached epidemic proportions. Further research in this area could lead to a new understanding of the mechanisms that result in the development of these diseases and how their adverse health effects could be therapeutically minimized and managed.