Our aim is to better understand the mechanisms of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases affecting people with the conditions covered by our clinical specialities (i.e. diabetes, renal disease, endocrine conditions), and the implications for the wider population - including groups defined by ethnicity, gender and deprivation.Our research strives to understand the pathways and processes linking obesity and physical inactivity to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in order to develop better strategies to prevent and treat obesity, and alleviate its metabolic and vascular complications. We use this knowledge both to develop new cardiovascular therapies and target existing ones more effectively. Our collective expertise spans molecular and biomarker/ ''-omic'' techniques through clinical investigation to population-level epidemiology, clinical trials and cardiovascular endpoint adjudication. We are leading in establishing disease-specific bioresources linked with routinely-acquired anonymised data from the National Health Service in Scotland. Our renal research theme is developing strategies to reduce this risk and improve outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease.