This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Obesity is one of the major health challenges facing the developed world, significantly increasing the risk of coronary disease, and of diabetes. It has recently been shown that for every "point" by which a person's body mass index (BMI) exceeds 25, there is an associated increase in the risk of cardiac disease. An estimated 9.4% of US healthcare expenditure is directly related to "obesity and inactivity", while recent costs due to diabetes were estimated at $98 billion per annum. A successful understanding of the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to the metabolic disease crisis will require that the full spectrum of basic, translational, and clinical research and epidemiology be brought to bear on the problem. To develop a model to study this disease our group has chosen to use the high fat diet induced obese (DIO) NHP model. The DIO-NHP is one of the few models that develops the full spectrum of the metabolic syndrome, including, obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (hypertension and atherosclerosis), and immune dysfunction. Furthermore, the NHP has a similar cyto-architecture of the pancreatic islets and the developmental ontogeny of metabolic systems is similar to humans. All of these points make the NHP the most appropriate model for the human metabolic diseases. The purpose of this resource is to provide investigators access to the extensively characterized DIO macaque model, without having to incur the whole expense themselves.