In developed countries, metabolic and vascular diseases are the leading cause of disability and death, with a major impact on health care costs. This is in part due to metabolic overload (i.e., caloric intake exceeding dietary needs) and the associated risks of secondary disorders, including obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and hypertension. Estimates from the WHO are that more than 50% of the population in developed countries are obese.
The excess lipids stored in obesity accumulate in lipid droplets in different cells and tissues, ultimately leading to fatty infiltration of liver, skeletal muscle, and macrophages (foam cells), which are hallmarks of energy-overload diseases. Thus, lipid droplets and their biology are now the focus of much research.
Prof. Gerd Schmitz holds the chair for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Regensburg, which includes the Central Laboratory, the Transfusion Medicine, and the Stem Cell Center of the University Hospital.
His major research interest is related to the pathogenesis of the innate immune system, particularly the monocyte in vascular and metabolic diseases. The aim of the projects is to study the abnormalities of monocytic cells, phagocytic macrophages, or antigen presenting cells (APC), and to understand the abnormalities of genetic disorders and life-style factors affecting cellular lipid homeostasis and thereby initiating disease-specific innate immune responses.
Dr. Farese is a Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and is a professor of medicine and of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Farese is an expert on the biology of obesity. His work over the past 15 years has focused on energy and fat metabolism and specifically on how cells and organisms synthesize and store fats. Using a variety of organisms, such as yeast and mice, his group identified and determined the functions of many of the enzymes of fat synthesis. More recently, they identified many of the genes that regulate fat storage in cells. Dr. Farese's laboratory also studies neurobiology and neurodegenerative disease, particularly frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He is currently the co-director of the Consortium for FTD Research (CFR), a UCSF-based effort to study the biology of FTD and develop cures.
