Precise metabolic control is essential for maintaining homeostasis and preventing disease. The transcriptional regulation of metabolism has been intensively studied for decades; however, the focus, thus far, has been on the timing and amplitude of gene expression. Our lab, studying insulin control of liver metabolism, has recently found that the location of gene expression within the tissue can also be regulated to fine tune metabolism. In this talk, our work on bile acid synthesis will be presented: we have found that the repatterning of enzymes that occurs in the absence of insulin favors the production of the toxic bile acids that promote diabetes and associated disorders. We hypothesize that the spatial control of metabolic gene expression represents a novel lens with which to view metabolism that will enable the next generation of therapies to target metabolism.