Welcome to the Nutrition, Integrative Metabolism and Obesity lab
The main research focus of the Nutrition, Integrative Metabolism and Obesity (NIMO) lab is the metabolic inter-organ crosstalk between the gut, adipose tissue, liver, and skeletal muscle in the etiology of obesity, insulin resistance and cardiometabolic complications. We aim to unravel the mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of obesity-related cardiometabolic complications. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of (personalized) dietary, physical activity, and pharmacological interventions, as well as modulation of environmental factors such as oxygen availability on cardiometabolic perturbations in humans with overweight or obesity.
The translational research within the NIMO team involves measurements at the whole-body, tissue and cellular level. We combine state-of-the-art in vivo physiological phenotyping in humans, using hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps, stable isotope methodology, microdialysis, arterio-venous balance measurements, non-invasive imaging and indirect calorimetry (ventilated hood and respiration chamber measurements) with molecular characterization of pathways involved in energy and substrate metabolism in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle biopsies, in vitro studies on human myotubes, adipocytes and hepatocytes, in vitro colonic fermentation models and gut microbial composition and functionality.
The NIMO lab is part of the Department of Human Biology, NUTRIM School for Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, at the Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciences of Maastricht University, The Netherlands.