The center focuses on investigation of novel pharmacological therapeutics for obesity treatment in clinical trials and in using these new medications as tools to probe the mechanisms of obesity in human clinical-translational physiology studies. Additionally, in collaboration with health outcomes researchers at Yale CORE, research at Y-Weight center aims to understand factors that influence response to these and other new therapeutic agents in clinical practice, including cost, access, real-word efficacy, tolerability, and long-term health outcomes.
The activities enabled by the center include three areas of research:
To investigate and understand the underlying physiology and mechanisms which contribute to and perpetuate obesity and to elucidate mechanisms by which pharmacotherapeutics and other obesity treatments target disease mechanisms and impact overall body/brain physiology.
To investigate efficacy and safety of interventions in various phases of development, inclusive of anti-obesity pharmacotherapeutics, in phases 1-3 of development.
To use real-world data of anti-obesity pharmacotherapeutics to assess safety and effectiveness, investigate heterogeneity of response, demonstrate impact on health outcomes, evaluate equity of access and impact of cost on patients, and assess cost effectiveness or savings, from various perspectives.