Diabetes and Metabolic Dysfunction (J6)

Diabetes and obesity related complications and associated metabolic disorders are major public health problems at the local, national and global levels. These metabolic defects underlie the basis for multiple debilitating diseases including heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, hypertension, neural degeneration, wound healing, amputations, periodontal disease and birth defects. The proposed meeting will address several cutting edge aspects of molecular, cellular, tissue and integrative system metabolism that account for the metabolic defects that occur in diabetes and obesity. Several of these themes overlap with the joint meeting on Mitochondria, Metabolism, and Heart Failure. The concurrent sessions will address distinct and novel aspects of normal and dysregulation muscle (skeletal and cardiac) intracellular signaling, mitochondria function/dynamics, aging and energy balance. We have selected leaders in each of these respective areas that will not only address basic and integrative mechanisms in model systems, but several will address these issues in human pathology. The diabetes specific sessions reflect several key aspects of metabolic dysregulation in which novel information is currently forthcoming causing a paradigm shift in over our previous understanding of these processes. These include new information about tissue cross talk, the inter-relationship between the control of glucose production and fatty acid synthesis that underlies selective insulin resistance and the role of normal and dysregulated circadian rhythms on metabolic processes. Each of these sessions will provide unique and exciting findings that will provide the basis for new future research directions.