Vanderbilt center using live models to understand metabolism in obesity and diabetes

Vanderbilt Center for Metabolic Phenotyping in Live Models of Obesity and Diabetes

NIH-funded research Vanderbilt University · NIH-11319720

This center uses live mouse models to improve tools and methods that help scientists understand metabolic problems behind obesity and diabetes.

Quick facts

Grant typeNIH-funded research
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionVanderbilt University NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (Nashville, UNITED STATES)
Project IDNIH-11319720 on NIH RePORTER

What this research studies

I would not join this work as a patient because it focuses on experiments in awake, unstressed mice, but the center supports research aimed at human obesity and diabetes. It runs three cores that provide administration and data management, animal health and welfare oversight, and a mouse metabolic physiology core that offers surgeries and controlled-environment experiments. External researchers can send animals or collaborate to use platforms that measure insulin action, hormone secretion, body-weight regulation, and other metabolic functions. The center standardizes and shares detailed physiological data to make preclinical research more reliable and comparable.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: This grant does not enroll patients; it supports laboratory research that may benefit people with obesity or diabetes in the future.

Not a fit: People seeking to join a clinical trial or those with conditions unrelated to metabolism are unlikely to receive any direct benefit from this center's activities.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, the center could speed development of better diabetes and obesity treatments by giving researchers more reliable metabolic data from live models.

How similar studies have performed: Vanderbilt's prior mouse metabolic phenotyping programs and similar centers have a multi-decade track record of enabling discoveries in diabetes and obesity.

Where this research is happening

Nashville, UNITED STATES

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.
Last reviewed 2026-06-13 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.