Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome

A research legacy with a wider reach

The New York Academy of Sciences dedicates the April 8 symposium to Jesse Roth and more than 50 years of his research. Roth, an endocrinologist from the Feinstein Institutes of Medical Research, is credited in the event description with pioneering the discovery of insulin receptors and advancing the understanding that receptor malfunction may be connected to human disorders.

That history gives the program a thread to follow, not a single conclusion to announce. The organizers connect Roth’s early interests in diabetes and cell signaling with his later interest in hormones produced by the gut microbiome. Across the agenda, that broad frame reaches from insulin action and adipose tissue to research on gut microbes and the brain.

Further reading: Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome - NYAS ↗

From insulin signaling to adipose tissue

The opening session sets current work against the history of hormone-receptor research. Megan Prescott, PhD, of The New York Academy of Sciences gives the welcome; Jeffrey S. Flier, MD, of Harvard University speaks on the field’s history; and Domenico Accili, MD, Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, delivers the keynote, “On the Shoulders of Giants.”

The next session looks at insulin action and insulin resistance from several angles. Gerald Shulman, MD, PhD, of Yale University addresses the evolutionary basis of insulin resistance; C. Ronald Kahn, MD, of Harvard Medical School, focuses on the insulin receptor’s expanding signaling system; and Samuel Klein, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, examines adipose tissue’s relationship to insulin sensitivity in humans.

After the midday poster and networking block, the afternoon session stays with metabolic disorders but shifts its focus to adipose tissue and genetics. Aaron Cypess, MD, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health, speaks about brown adipose tissue and metabolic health. Barbara B. Kahn, MD, of Harvard Medical School, takes up adipose tissue secretions and metabolic control, while Deborah Muoio, PhD, of Duke University, addresses metabolites and mitochondrial metabolism in diabetes and insulin resistance.

Further reading: Agenda: Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome ↗ · Speakers: Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome ↗

The closing turn to gut and brain

The final session brings together three different research subjects under the agenda’s theme of the brain, gut and gut microbiome in diabetes and obesity. Jose Clemente, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, speaks about gut microbes in obesity and metabolic disease. Sloan Devlin, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, presents “Gut Bacteria Rewrite Steroid Chemistry,” followed by Zoe Arvanitakis, MD, of Rush University, on insulin resistance in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease. Megan Prescott is scheduled to give closing remarks.

A 30-minute short-talk session appears before the poster and lunch block, but the posted agenda does not name its speakers or titles. Researchers can submit abstracts for consideration for a short talk or poster; submission is not a guarantee of inclusion. That distinction matters for anyone hoping to plan around a particular short presentation.

Further reading: Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome - NYAS ↗ · Agenda: Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome ↗ · Expanding the Endocrine Landscape: Peptide Hormones, Receptors, and the Microbiome ↗