Translational science
The translational arm of VCOTT, the Vanderbilt Collaborative for Obesity Trials and Translational science, studies the biology behind responses to obesity treatment, using specimens and cohorts from the clinical portfolio.
Focus
The translational science arm of VCOTT asks why patients respond differently to obesity treatment, and what treatment changes in tissues, metabolism, and the gut. It builds on more than a decade of work at VUMC showing that bile acids and the gut microbiota contribute to the metabolic benefits of bariatric surgery, including a mouse model in which diverting bile to the distal small intestine produces metabolic benefits comparable to bariatric surgery. Current work examines obesity across tissues at single-cell resolution, using a biorepository of frozen and formalin-fixed tissue from about 650 bariatric surgery patients at VUMC, linked to clinical information from the electronic health record. The translational work sits alongside the clinical trials portfolio, allowing specimen collection to be planned when each protocol is designed, so that mechanistic questions can be addressed in the same patients whose treatment outcomes are measured.
Laboratory capability
The laboratory's methods include mass spectrometry-based proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics; stable isotope tracer studies of metabolism; and surgical, genetic, and pharmacologic mouse models, including bile diversion, applied alongside human tissue, blood, and stool specimens.
Specimen collection
Specimens are collected under IRB-approved protocols in the portfolio, with collection planned when each protocol is designed.
Training
The translational arm includes postdoctoral training.
Collaboration
Investigators interested in mechanistic collaboration, or in specimens from VCOTT studies, may write to contact@vcott.org. Each request is considered individually.