Foreword

Block I: Epidemiology, inheritance, environment, and pathways

1. Introduction - Joel Faintuch j.faintuch @ hc.fm.usp.br Hospital das Clinicas, Sao Paulo University Medical School Sao Paulo, Brazil
2. Sonia Pou - Nutrition transition and obesity burden in Argentina pousonia @ hotmail.com Scientific and Technologic Center CONICET, Cordoba, Argentina
3. Alexei Volaco -Social and economic status: the link between obesity and diabetes avolaco @ yahoo.com.br PontificialCatholic University, Curitiba, PR, Brazil
4. Jean Claude Mbanya- Cost of diabetes in Africa jcmbanya @ yahoo.co.uk Faculty of Medicine and Biological Science, University of Yaounde, Cameroon
5. Marta Viana- White and brown adipose tissue mviana @ ceu.es School of Pharmacy, University CEU San Pablo, Madrid, Spain
6. Brooks Leitner - Leveraging brown adipose tissue for metabolic therapy brooks.leitner @ yale.eduSchool of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
7. Antonello Lorenzini- Obesity and aging Antonello.lorenzini @ unibo.it School of Pharmacy, University of Bologna, Italy
8. Giuseppe . Iacomino - Micro RNAs in obesity and metabolic diseases Giuseppe . Iacomino @ isa.cnr.it Institute of Food Sciences, Rome, Italy
9. Nikhil.Dhurandar - From adipogenic adenoviruses to anti-diabetic drug Nikhil.Dhurandar @ ttu.edu Department of Nutritional Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
10. Ana Carolina Proença da Fonseca - Genetics and obesity Ana.proenca @ ioc.fiocruz.br Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
11. Peter Congdon - Urban environment and obesity P.congdon @ qmul.ac.uk School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
12. Umesh Yadav - Adipose tissue inflammation umeshyadav @ cug.ac.in School of Life Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India
13. Umesh Yadav- Cross talk between adipocytes, macrophages, and other imune cells umeshyadav @ cug.ac.in School of Life Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India
14. Alexandre Assuane- Diabetes in figures Alexandre Assuane @ hotmail.com Medical Faculty of the FriedrichWilhelms University, Bonn, Germany
15. Carlos Mandarim - Pancreatic islets: cell biology and therapy for diabetes mandarim @ uerj.br Faculty of Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
16. Mahaneem Mohamed - Advanced glycation end products in obesity and comorbidities mahaneem @ usm.my School of Medical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
17. Kalliopi Kotsa - The anti-incretin theory kalmanthou @ yahoo.gr MedicalSchool, AristotleUniversity, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Block II: Genomics, metabolomics and other omics

18. David Meyre - Personalized treatment of Mendelian forms of obesity meyred @ mcmaster.ca McMaster University School of Medicine, Hamilton, ON, Canada
19. Marcus Pezzolesi - Genetic basis of diabetic kidney disease Marcus.pezzolesi @ hsc.utah.edu University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
20. Meenu Ghai - Epigenetics and early detection of diabetes Meenu Ghai Ghai @ ukzn.ac.za School of Life Sciences, University of