The chronic nutritional and metabolic disease of obesity is characterized by an excessive increase in body fat and its accumulation in tissues. Those who suffer from obesity also have an increased risk of concomitant or secondary diseases such as type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and atherosclerosis. Researchers at the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA) in Groningen, the Netherlands, and the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena, Germany, have now demonstrated for the first time in a mouse model how the transcription factor C/EBPβ can positively influence fat storage and maintain health even under a particularly high-fat diet.