A conference about energy control and metabolism

Talk title: 'Alteration in glucose and lipid metabolism in MASLD'

Amalia Gastaldelli is a Research Director at the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the CNR in Pisa, Italy, where she heads the Cardiometabolic Risk Group and the Multi-Omics Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. She is also Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Diabetes Division of the UT- Health, in San Antonio, Texas, USA, and Affiliate Professor at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. Her research focuses on the pathophysiological mechanisms of metabolic diseases (mainly MASLD-Metabolic dysfunction Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes) and on the alteration of metabolic fluxes and hormone secretion and action.

She is currently President of the European MASLD Study Group affiliated to the EASD, which she founded in 2012 and President of the EGIR-European Group for the study of Insulin Resistance since 2018. In 2016 and 2023 she was part of the EASL-EASD-EASO committees for clinical guidelines for the management of MASLD.

Talk title: 'TBD'

Professor Anu Suomalainen-Wartiovaara is a leader in molecular medicine and mitochondrial diseases, with a deep interest in molecular mechanisms of disease, especially the question why diseases are tissue-specific, and how we can utilize understanding in molecular biology to develop treatments for currently incurable diseases.

Talk title: 'Translational Genomics of Type 2 Diabetes'

Prof. Eleftheria Zeggini, FMedSci | Eleftheria Zeggini obtained a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Immunogenetics of Juvenile Arthritis from the University of Manchester. Following a statistical genetics post doc at the Centre for Integrated Genomic and Medical Research in Manchester, she moved to the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford to undertake a post doc in type 2 diabetes research.

In 2008, she joined the Wellcome Sanger Institute Human Genetics Faculty where she built a programme of work to advance analytical genomics of complex traits. In 2018, she moved to Helmholtz Munich as founding Director of the Institute of Translational Genomics, and since May 2020 holds the TUM Liesel Beckmann Distinguished Professorship at the Technical University Munich School of Medicine.

Her research aims to translate insights from genomics into mechanisms of disease development and progression, shortening the path to translation and empowering precision medicine.

Talk title: 'Mendel's Peas as Exemplar or Exception? New Light from an Old Debate'

Gregory Radick is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds. Educated at Rutgers and Cambridge Universities, he has published widely on the history of the sciences of life and mind since the eighteenth century. His books include The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language (2007, awarded the 2010 Suzanne J. Levinson Prize), Darwin in Ilkley (with Mike Dixon, 2009), and Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology (2023, shortlisted for the 2024 Pickstone Prize).

He has served as President of the British Society for the History of Science (2014-16) and the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (2019-21), and is currently a Trustee of the UK’s Science Museum Group. In 2024 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society and was awarded the 2025 J. B. S. Haldane Lecture by the Genetics Society.

Talk title: 'TBA'

Professor Ingela Lanekoff leads the Lanekoff Group at Uppsala University. The research within the Lanekoff Group is focused on developing and utilizing novel approaches for mass spectrometric analysis and imaging of lipids and metabolites from biological surfaces, such as thin tissue sections and cells.

She is also the Head of the Steering Board of the Centre of Excellence for Chemical Mechanisms of Life, which was inaugurated on the 12th of April in 2024. The aim is to create a hub where researchers with different backgrounds and expertise can transcend traditional subject boundaries and find collaborators. The centre is one of five research environments at the university that have received grants as part of the Swedish Research Council’s 2022 Excellence Initiative. Each research environment is receiving between four and six million SEK annually for five years, with the possibility of an additional five years of funding following an evaluation.

Talk title: 'Current Status and Potential Future of Obesity Therapies'

Jim's research responsibilities include building and leading an early discovery research team and developing therapeutic agents focused on obesity and related diseases. Jim received his PhD from Deakin University in Australia and then relocated to the US for postdoctoral studies at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. He then joined Amylin Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA) shortly after they received approval for exenatide, the first GLP-1R agonist, where he served in in vivo pharmacology and project team leadership roles.

Jim has subsequently worked at Novartis (Cambridge, MA), MedImmune/AstraZeneca (Gaithersburg, MD) and Gilead (San Francisco, CA), primarily in metabolic disease therapeutic areas. Jim has led teams that have successfully nominated clinical development candidates and is expert at combination approaches for the treatment of metabolic diseases.

Talk title: 'Will complex genetics ever advance clinical practice in type 2 diabetes?'

Jose Florez is the Physician-in-Chief and Co-Chair of the Department of Medicine at Mass General Brigham, Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Institute Member at the Broad Institute.

Dr. Florez obtained his B.A./M.S. and M.D./Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He completed his medical residency and a fellowship in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at MGH, where he remains clinically active. Prior to becoming Department Chair, he led the Endocrine Division and Diabetes Unit. He has led high-throughput genomic studies in type 2 diabetes and related traits in multiple international consortia, advancing precision medicine and pharmacogenetics in diabetes.

In 2010 he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. In 2019 he received the Father of the Year award from the American Diabetes Association.