Penny Gordon-Larsen, a UNC-Chapel Hill obesity researcher, believes there’s a lot more at play when it comes to weight gain and loss.

Beyond eating and exercise, environmental factors, behaviors and genetics all play a role. Every person is unique and requires a different approach to lose weight.

Thanks to a new funding program at Carolina, called Creativity HubsOpens in new window, Gordon-Larsen has organized a team of more than 30 researchers across 20 academic departments, from nutrition to health behavior and even data science. 

The Heterogeneity in Obesity Creativity Hub: Transdisciplinary Approaches for Precision Research and Treatment program supports “hubs,” or teams of diverse scientists spanning multiple disciplines who come together to solve major societal challenges.

“We would never have been able to approach this problem using such an innovative approach without this mechanism,” said Gordon-Larsen. 

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