Grant: Project Grant

After menopause, many women experience weight gain around the abdomen, reduced energy expenditure, and worsening control of blood sugar. These changes greatly increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and fatty liver disease. Current treatments, including hormone therapy and diabetes medications, only partly address these problems and may not be suitable or effective for all women. As a result, there is a critical need for new, non-hormonal strategies that directly improve metabolic health after menopause. This project aims to understand how changes in fat tissue function during menopause contribute to impaired glucose control and metabolic disease, and to identify new ways to restore healthy metabolism. Using mouse models that closely mimic the natural menopausal transition and female aging, we will examine how fat tissue remodeling affects energy balance, blood sugar regulation, and liver health. We aim to will identify when metabolic vulnerability emerges and determine the best windows for therapeutic intervention.