EFHOBESITY

Obesity is a major risk factor for multiple common chronic diseases. The prevalence in European countries has been high and is nowadays a major public-health concern. The EUREGIO Environment, Food & Health (EUREGIO-EFH) initiative establishes a local partnership of the neighboring regions of Trentino, South Tyrol in Italy and Tyrol in Austria, bringing together local strengths in biomedicine, nutrition and food chemistry to address these challenges. The goal is to lay the scientific basis for practical approaches to fight obesity, and for providing innovative solutions valorizing regional food production while safeguarding the environment. The Eurac Institute for Biomedicine is contributing to this initiative by exploring the obesity landscape in the region based on the data available from the CHRIS study, and by providing genomics data support for an obesity intervention study (FASTMOB) set up by the EUREGIO-EFH partners. In particular, we will implement methods to estimate individual genetic risk and better assess individual predisposition to obesity and explore metabolomic markers associated with obesity, as well as with metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity. The resulting insights and tools should be valuable in the design and execution of future health interventions for the local population.