Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered a new critical component in the obesity pathway.

Gaining and losing weight during “yo-yo dieting” may contribute to an exaggerated immune response in fat tissue that increases metabolic dysfunction more than steady weight gain alone.

Dietary variety – not high-fat or sugary foods – appears to stimulate overeating in a mouse model of an inherited obesity syndrome.

Vanderbilt University has signed a collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for severe obesity.

A new study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators found that obese patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer spent more time in the operating room, adding to the nation’s health care bill.

The statistics are jarring. More than 25.8 million children and adults in the United States — 8.3 percent of the population — have diabetes. And predictions are that one in three people will have the chronic disease by 2050.