Stimulus funding
Behavioral scientist Rena Wing: Obesity remains “the number one health risk facing Americans.” Credit: Brown University/John Abromowski

More than $12 million from NIH – including $2 million in stimulus funding – for obesity research

Rena Wing, director of the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center at the Miriam Hospital and a professor in Brown’s Alpert Medical School, will expand her team’s focus on the prevention of obesity – one of the nation’s most critical health challenges.
By Mark Hollmer  |  October 15, 2009  |  Email to a friend

A Warren Alpert Medical School professor who is nationally known for her research on weightloss interventions has attracted a substantial amount of new federal funding.

Rena Wing, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, is the principal investigator behind six new research grants worth more than $12 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The money is going to the Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, where Wing serves as director. The center’s multidisciplinary approach focuses on healthy eating, exercise, and modifying behavior to promote weight loss and maintenance. 

The NIH grants will support a number of studies including behavioral interventions to prevent weight gain in young adults and the testing of an innovative Internet-based program designed to help patients stick to their weight-loss regimens. Another study will explore whether getting more sleep helps people control their weight.

Funding for three of the grants was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), including a highly competitive NIH Challenge Grant. Only 200 challenge grants were awarded to researchers nationwide out of approximately 20,000 applications. 

Among the largest of the grants is $6 million over a period of five years from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to compare two behavioral interventions to prevent weight gain in young adults. According to Wing, young adults experience the greatest rate of weight gain – about one to two pounds per year – putting them at increased risk for health problems such as heart disease. 

In a statement, Wing said that obesity remains “the number one health risk facing Americans.” The new federal financial support, she said, will help to strengthen and build on her center’s existing research programs.

Along with James Hill of the University of Colorado-Denver, Wing founded the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), the largest prospective investigation of long-term successful weight loss maintenance in the world. The registry includes data on more than 5,000 men and women who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.