A Human-Relevant System To Investigate Obesity, Diabetes And Covid-19

Obesity and type 2 diabetes impacts the function of several organs in the body which can result in the development of other diseases but also increase the susceptibility of viral infections. It has been shown that obesity is a risk factor for developing severe symptoms from COVID-19 and therefore understanding why this is the case is high important for scientists and doctors. Animals have been used to investigate obesity, however making comparisons is difficult due to the differences between animals and human metabolism. Therefore, developing a system which replaces animal use and accurately replicates human obesity can address this issue. This project aims to establish a multi tissues model in the Quasi Vivo system which replicates human obesity which can be used to understand how different tissues behave and communicate with each other as well as the influence of diseases like COVID-19 in obesity.