K.G. Jebsen Center for Obesity Research (CORA)

Obesity is one of the most challenging health problems in the world as it dramatically augments risks of weight related complications and puts a high burden on public health care system. Weight loss therapies aimed at reducing energy intake and increasing energy expenditure are largely unsuccessful in the long-term, and the more effective obesity surgery is neither suitable nor available for all with severe obesity. Independent of treatment approach, most patients experience weight regain and fail to establish stable long-term weight reduction. Importantly, patients who discontinue the use of novel weight loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro also face weight regain.Adipocytes (the cells that store fat in the human body) keep a memory after successful weight loss. This memory together with other well-known factors such as the human brain´s reward mechanisms, may play a fundamental role in the often-observed weight regain after weight loss interventions. Researchers do not yet know if and how memory in adipocytes is linked to weight regain in humans. The K.G. Jebsen Center for Obesity Research (CORA) will contribute to better understand which mechanisms contribute to weight-regain, how such mechanisms could be targeted to maintain a stable body weight and to determine if patients could be stratified for their individual risk of weight regain. The center’s mission is to promote effective prevention and treatment of weight regain for people with obesity in a precision medicine perspective. The center ´s vision is to provide an integrative translational approach to research on obesity. CORA aims to define novel targets for pharmacological obesity treatment and weight maintenance after successful weight loss.  In their daily work, the researchers and clinicians at the center will use a translational bedside-to-bench-to-bedside strategy with clinical trials on weight loss and on prevention of weight regain, paired with basic and preclinical research approaches. Center leader Yvonne Böttcher (UiO) and her team will collaborate with Vestfold Hospital Trust and with colleagues in Finland and Germany.