Preclinical Research

Current therapeutic strategies against obesity aim to restrict caloric intake and / or energy expenditure, but current treatments are far from being effective. The discovery of thermogenic brown and beige adipose tissue in human has opened up new potential avenues to combat obesity and its complications. This process of energy dissipation through adipose tissue is tightly regulated, and the elucidation of its regulatory network is a key point for development of new therapeutic approaches.
The group has a research line in which the effect of microRNAs on the expansion of adipose tissue and its functionality is studied, and specifically on
the induction of thermogenesis in brown tissue and browning of white adipose tissue. Another research line of the group studies the specific targeting of drugs promoting browning and thermogenesis to adipose tissue, through nanosystems technology.
Obesity, in addition to being associated with metabolic diseases, is also one of
the primary causes of mental illness. In fact, the prevalence of mental illness in the obese population is high. Our group also investigates the causes of this
relationship and, specifically, how alterations in the expansion and functionality of adipose tissue, through factors secreted into the blood, affect brain processes such as neurogenesis.