Organization:Ciberobn
The Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición: CIBERObn) is a public research consortium which was founded on November 28, 2006 financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN).
The CIBERObn gathers 31 investigation groups from different Spanish Hospitals, Universities and Research Centres. Its mission is to promote a better knowledge about the mechanisms contributing to obesity development in order to reduce its incidence and prevalence, as well as its complications, in addition to nutrition-related diseases.
The CIBERObn is structured into 8 scientific programs intended to increase the collaboration between researchers, to strengthen synergies and to boost new research lines. Programs are as follows:
- Nutrition: effects of different types of diet and nutrients on human health.
- Adipobiology: identification of new signals released by the adipose tissue which are involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis.
- Obesity and Cancer: role of those proteins associated with cell cycle on metabolic control and obesity development.
- Obesity and Cardiovascular risk: hemodynamic, metabolic and inflammatory factors associated to cardiac and vascular diseases in obesity.
- Neurocognitive and Environmental Factors: environmental and emotional factors in nutrition and obesity disorders.
- Obesity in Childhood-Adolescence Period: biochemical, hormonal, metabolic, genetic, proteomic and body-composition study in children and adolescents.
- Biomarkers: new strategies, therapeutic and prevention technologies, biomarkers of obesity.
- Biological Models and Therapeutic Targets: development and validation of experimental models and therapeutic targets in case of obesity.
Additionally, CIBERObn lays a particular emphasis on translational research, specially focusing on research transfer to clinical applications and practices. To this end, two cross-cutting programs have been created:
- Staff Training and Recruitment, which is intended to train our staff according to our research lines and priorities
- “Fat Bank” Structural Program: biobank infrastructure connecting the above-mentioned programs in a cross way by contributing with common solutions.
The Fat Bank is a strategic platform of the CIBERObn which offers the Scientific Community different kinds of biological material which are associated to thorough metabolic phenotyping. This information is entered by means of a tailor-made individualised software. This fat-bank- launched in 2009- currently contains 3000 samples of biologic material from more than 300 individuals.[1]
In 2009, 287 indexed articles were published. Their average impact factor is 4.05, which is very high for this subject area. Of them, 67 (23%) belong to the first decile and 105 more (total 172 papers, 60%) belong to the first quartile of the subject area of indexed journals. They accumulate a total impact factor of 1,165. Provisional data of 2010 show an increase of 10%, highly improving the international visibility of the consortium.
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