Metabolic dysfunction is both causative and the final common pathway responsible for the morbidity and mortality of many diseases. For example, obesity and its attendant disorders, such as Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, have reached epidemic proportions globally. Understanding how genetic and environmental factors affect metabolism, and how therapeutic interventions may remediate these metabolic alterations, is critical to disease treatment and prevention. Investigations of metabolic dysregulation require the capability to assess whole animal physiology, including food intake, energy expenditure, the relative use of fuel sources, exercise tolerance, and activity. No such integrative facility currently exists at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine or nearby Institutions. Our goal is to acquire a Comprehensive Lab Animal Monitor System (CLAMS) to permit the continuous and simultaneous monitoring and assessment of indirect calorimetry (VO2, RER), food intake, physical activity, and voluntary and stimulus-driven exercise. The Johns Hopkins Medical Institution (JHMI), specifically the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences (IBBS), has provided infrastructure and financial resources to the Center for Metabolism and Obesity Research (CMOR) to permit investigator and technical support for the CLAMS. Since its inception this year, CMOR has served as a foundation for the study and support of integrative research in the field of metabolism and systems biology to advance our understanding of the biological mechanisms that regulate metabolism and how they are dysregulated in disease. CMOR's goals are to provide an infrastructure for scientific interactions among faculty and community, to integrate research using model organisms and metabolic profiling, to develop service and technological resources, to enhance the education of trainees, and to foster interactions between the center and others organizations that support research in metabolism. The acquisition and support of the CLAMS is central to these goals. The experiments that will be enabled by the CLAMS will provide comprehensive evaluation of metabolic parameters for the exploration of the cellular mechanisms critical to the development of therapeutic interventions.
