UpAmigos, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, in Mexico is planning a 2-day conference at UIUC this fall (September 19 – 20, 2013) that will focus on “Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome among Mexicans and Mexican Americans.”  We will bring together scholars from the U.S. and Mexico as well as key administrators (including the President and Dean of Research) from our partner institution in Mexico.

Together with our Mexican collaborators, we have collected self-report, anthropometric, and biological data from three cohorts of adolescents/young adults applying to the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi.  One goal of the conference is to explore potential research partnerships with U.S.-based groups conducting similar research with Mexican origin populations in the U.S.  We have secured the participation of Anthony Comuzzie, from the Texas Biomedial Research Institute, and are in the process of identifying other potential speakers, including Dr. Daviglus from the Sol Study.

Contributed by:  Flavia Cristina Drumon Andrade