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Fredrik Karpe

MD/PhD, FRCP


Professor of Metabolic Medicine

  • Head of OCDEM
  • Honorary Consultant Physician

Oxford Laboratory for Integrative Physiology (Oxlip)

I head the Metabolic Research Group together with Associate Professor Leanne Hodson. My research is focussed on human adipose tissue function and the metabolic consequences of obesity. With increasing rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, this is an area of unmet clinical need. We are intrigued by strong epidemiological data suggesting opposite associations between the risk of both diabetes and cardiovascular disease vs. upper and lower body obesity. The current research line aims to clarify protective role of gluteofemoral adipose tissue and the metabolically detrimental role of abdominal adipose tissue by studying the tissues at both cellular and whole body level. If one could impose the specialized features of gluteofemoral fat to other tissues, this may lead to interesting new therapeutic approaches.