Eating and Endocrine Disorders
Obesity is a health problem that affects 17% of children and teens in theUnited States, and the rates of diabetes and other comorbidities are still rising. Today there are three times as many obese children and teens as there were 20 years ago. Investigators at CIBR are studying the neural aspects of eating and endocrine disorders in an effort to better understand childhood obesity and its treatment. We are using a variety of methods, including animal models (brain lesion, dietary, and genetic), endocrine studies, functional brain imaging (fMRI), and investigations of the eating-related neural and behavioral consequences of damage to specific brain structures that occurs in patients with certain brain tumors.
CIBR Investigators:
- Christian Roth, MD
- Elizabeth Aylward, PhD
- Franck Kalume, PhD
- Soo-Jeong Kim, MD
Current Projects:
- Mechanisms underlying excessive weight gain and potential therapies for craniopharyngioma induced hypothalamic obesity
- Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRI) Brain Imaging in Patients with Hypothalamic Obesity
- Vitamin D deficiency and its relation to Obesity and Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
- Rat models of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease induced by vitamin D deficiency and westernized diet
- Vitamin D deficiency in obese children
- Childhood Obesity and the long term success of treatment procedures