About the Lab
A sedentary lifestyle, high-calorie food, and stressful environment have placed an unprecedented challenge on our genome that mostly experience famine instead of a feast for thousands of years. The maladaptation of a system that was to preserve energy for famine has led to a pandemic of obesity in our society.
Our lab focuses on understanding the role of adipose tissue in this systemic maladaptation and aims to find new ways to combat obesity and its most common sequelae – type 2 diabetes.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Zhu's research interests: adipocytes, gap junction, hyaluronan, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes.
Publications
Our research projects and studies result in publications in PubMed and other scientific journals.
USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center
The Zhu Lab is part of the Children's Nutrition Research Center which houses state-of-the-art laboratories, a vast array of equipment, a greenhouse, observation labs, research volunteer accommodations, a metabolic kitchen, and an elite group of scientists conducting groundbreaking research.
