Annual Meeting

Different field, different problem, same solution: metabolism!

A Discover BMB symposium: Advances in Organismal and Cellular Metabolism
Gary Patti Nika Danial
By Gary Patti and Nika Danial
Sept. 20, 2022

Metabolism has captured the interest of researchers across many different biological disciplines. In some fields, interest in longstanding metabolic questions has been renewed. In other areas, new metabolic connections are being made for the first time. No matter the topic, however, metabolism studies evoke pathway charts and methodological approaches that may not be common knowledge in all disciplines, and this could hinder dialogue between investigators. Moreover, many of the same metabolic patterns are observed consistently in different disease settings, animal models and cell types. 

The purpose of our symposium at Discover BMB, the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which will be held in March in Seattle, is to bring together researchers from disparate areas of biology who speak the common language of metabolism. We want to facilitate interactions between investigators who may be thinking about the same metabolic themes, but who are not typically at the same meetings or conferences. The presentations will not be organized by discipline but rather by metabolism topic, with the aim of stimulating new discussions and collaborative opportunities.

Our symposium will feature research examining metabolism at multiple levels — ranging from whole body to cells and organelles. We will hear how the same metabolic programs are implicated not only in diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration but also in fundamental biochemical processes including immune response and vision.

Keywords: Metabolism, metabolomics, lipids, physiology, interorgan communication, mitochondria, lysosomes, isotope tracing.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in metabolism at any level in any context.

Theme song: “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction, because metabolism lights up all of our worlds — and in honor of the infamous “What Makes Glycolysis” parody (look it up!).

This session is powered by ox phos (platinum-level sponsor) and substrate-level phosphorylation (gold-level sponsor).

Speakers

Metabolic physiology
Gary Patti (chair), Washington University in St. Louis
Deb Muoio, Duke University
Nada Kalaany, Harvard Medical School
Matt Gentry, University of Kentucky

Metabolism in health and disease
Jason Tennessen, Indiana University
Jing Fan, University of Wisconsin

Organelle metabolism
Nika Danial (chair), Harvard Medical School
Dale Abel, University of California, Los Angeles
Roberto Zoncu, University of California, Berkeley
Natalie Niemi, Washington University in St. Louis
 

 

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Gary Patti
Gary Patti

Gary Patti is a professor in the departments of chemistry and medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and the senior director of the Center for Metabolomics and Isotope Tracing.

Nika Danial
Nika Danial

Nika Danial is an associate professor of medicine at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and the co-director of the T32 training program in cancer chemical biology and metabolism at DFCI.

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