Dr. Y. Eugene Chen is the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center. The long-term goal of Dr. Chen’s research program in vascular medicine is elucidating the molecular basis of obesity/diabetes-induced cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and stroke and on developing new drugs/technologies to study and treat diabetes and CVD. In the past years, Dr. Chen’s laboratory has made a series of significant contributions to our understanding of the role of PPAR activation as a determinant of vascular cell gene expression and cellular function and has been among the first to define the role of PPAR activation in the cardiovascular system. The discovery of the high-affinity physiological PPARγ ligands nitro-fatty acids advances our understanding of endogenous PPARγ modulation and provides novel therapeutic strategies for treating obesity/diabetes and CVD. Dr. Chen was the first to clone the exendin-4 (BYETTA, the drug name for exendin-4) gene, in 1995. Recently, Dr. Chen was named the Director of the Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics (CAMTraST) and the Vice-Chair for Basic and Translational Research in the Department of Cardiac Surgery within University of Michigan Medical Center. CAMTraST researchers are among the first in the world to produce gene-knockout and -knockin transgenic animals in non-rodent species (rabbits and pigs).