Researchers under ETH-Zurich professor Martin Fussenegger have created a new genetic network that could cure the various symptoms of so-called metabolic syndrome in one fell swoop. It already works in mice. Too much of the wrong food and not enough exercise: sooner or later, an increasing number of people in industrial nations pay the price for their lifestyle. High blood pressure, changed blood fat values, insulin resistance as a precursor to diabetes, and abdominal fat are characteristic of metabolic syndrome, the ‘killer of the twenty-first century’. After all, it is the major risk factor for the development of coronary heart diseases. Today, many more people die of cardiovascular diseases worldwide than from cancer.
