By Emily Overway
Alyssa Hasty, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, specializes in immunometabolism, specifically on the role that the immune system plays in obesity and metabolic disease. Recent work from her lab explored the changes in immune cell populations in fat during obesity, weight loss, and weight cycling. The work, led by recent Ph.D. graduate Matthew Cottam and aided by postdoctoral fellow Heather Caslin, was published in Nature Communications in May.
We sat down with Caslin to learn more about the project.
What issue/problem does your research address?
Weight loss is hard to maintain, and many individuals regain lost weight within a few years. Unfortunately, weight cycling-the process of losing and then regaining weight-is a greater diabetes risk than obesity itself. We know that adipose immune cells contribute to obesity-related disease risk, but less is understood about the role of adipose immune cells in weight cycling.
