In this pioneer application, we will build on the results from the PHRT project entitled: “Targeting the brown fat – Personalized strategies for treatment of metabolism”. We will increase the resolution of the genetic data by performing genome sequencing on patients with extreme metabolic phenotypes with matched transcriptomic and proteomics data. In addition, to generate an unprecedented picture of adipose tissue heterogeneity, we will generate single cell data to deconvolute the adipose tissue complexity in the same patients. These experiments will address several important clinical questions such as whether, extreme metabolic phenotypes can be linked to rare genetic variants and whether there is a link between adipose tissue composition, especially with regards to energy burning adipocytes and metabolic health in the obese state.
Health care costs are becoming an increasing burden for societies. The two most costly diseases are diabetes ($ 101 billion) and heart disease ($ 88 billion) The increase in diabetes has been substantial in the last 2 decades due the continuous rise of obesity in western countries. Personalized medicine is commonly associated with the field of oncology. However, it has already become clear that obesity and the associated diseases are very diverse, making them ideal targets for a personalized treatment approach. Thus, the response to modern drugs is significantly different among different ethnic groups. While the field is evolving rapidly, concepts to target metabolic disease on a personalized level are still uncommon.
