My primary research interests involve studies in the etiology, treatment, and prevention of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Studies are directed almost exclusively at the role of skeletal muscle in these disorders and are designed to elucidate what aspects of muscle metabolism are primary and which are secondary in etiology. These investigations involve studies of intact humans, combining glucose clamps with indirect calorimetry, leg blood flow and substrate balance, and needle biopsies of vastus lateralis muscle. Complementary in vitro studies are performed on human muscle cultures from such patients and involve studies of insulin signal transduction, gene regulation, enzymatic activation, and mitogenesis.