Sonia Caprio
Section of Endocrinology
Department of Pediatrics
sonia.caprio@yale.edu

Research
Childhood obesity has become the most prevalent nutritional disorder affecting one in five children in the U.S. A major area of research in my group is focused on understanding the metabolic consequences of juvenile obesity, the most common cause of insulin resistance in youth. Our group uses in vivo clamping tecniques in conjunction with stable isotopes, indirect calorimetry and magnetic resonance imaging to examine obesity induced alterations in insulin action in children and adolescents.

More recently, we have started to study the natural history of progression from normal glucose tolerance to overt type 2 diabetes in obese children and adolescents. We found that 25 % of children and adolescents with severe obesity have pre-diabetes. A major goal is to assess the mechanisms whereby obesity relates to diabetes in children and adolescents.