Innovative Collaboration Addresses the Science of Nutrition

Research effort funded by Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI)

Columbia University Medical Center's Rudolph Leibel, MD, and Michael Rosenbaum, MD, are members of a multi-center collaboration aimed at answering once and for all whether all calories are really equal with respect to metabolism and weight change.

Funded by the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), the researchers will test competing hypotheses of obesity and weight gain through highly specialized, rigorous inpatient studies.

"The issue of the role of diet composition per se in energy homeostasis is a persistent one that has led to the promulgation of numerous diets based on tenuous or non-existent evidence. The proposed studies will address the relevant biology in a way that should lead to definitive answers to important questions in this ongoing debate," said Dr. Leibel, the Christopher J. Murphy Professor of Diabetes Research, professor of pediatrics and medicine, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, and head of the Division of Molecular Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics.

"I am very proud to be a part of this talented research team," said Dr. Rosenbaum, professor of pediatrics and medicine at CUMC and associate program director of the Clinical and Translational Science Award and Clinical Research Resource. "NuSI has facilitated the multi-institutional pooling of our diverse expertise and resources to definitively examine the role of diet macronutrient composition in energy balance. After extensive discussion, review, and revision, we are now ready to begin."

To read the complete NuSI news release about the launch of this collaboration, please click here.