DIABAT - Recruitment and activation of brown adipocytes as preventive and curative therapy for type 2 diabetes

The DIABAT project comprises 19 research partners in 12 european countries and will employ knowledge of the function, dysfunction and physiological regulation of brown adipocytes to develop innovative therapeutic and preventive strategies for type 2 diabetes. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is currently a worldwide recognized target to combat obesity and diabetes due to last years re-discovery of functional BAT in adult humans by several of the members of the DIABAT network (van Marken LIchtenbelt et al., N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 1500, 2009; Virtanen, Enerbäck & Nuutila, N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 1518, 2009) along with sharp rise in insight in cellular, genetic, and regulatory mechanisms from animal studies. Therefore, the DIABAT project aims at recruiting and re-activating endogenous energydissipating BAT as a preventive and/or remedial measure for weight and blood sugar control in obesity-related type 2 diabetes (diabesity).