Monash-led Metabolic Diseases conference receives international recognition
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the developed world, and is spreading across Asia, Oceania and Africa. It is a principal factor in overall disease burden in the world, and the single most important contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Recognising the global burden to health this brings, Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) organised the inaugural Metabolic Diseases: breakthrough discoveries in diabetes and obesity international meeting late last year.
Attracting interest from world-leading researchers both in Australia and overseas, the meeting provided a forum for the exchange of ideas between academics, and clinical and pharmaceutical companies, to better understand strategies for combating obesity and type 2 diabetes. Plenary speakers were Professors Joel Elmquist and Philipp Scherer from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, who were joined by an impressive line-up of researchers presenting and discussing their work.
The meeting was so successful that the Journal of Neuroendocrinology not only supported the meeting, but also produced a Special Issue – edited by Associate Professor Zane Andrews - which covers some of the great science presented on different aspects of neuroendocrinology and metabolism.
Testimony to the strength in neuroendocrine control of metabolism at Monash, BDI researchers were featured in 9 of 15 of the papers published in this Special Issue.
The international Metabolic Diseases: Breakthrough discoveries in diabetes and obesity meeting will now be a biennial event, with the next one taking place in Melbourne in October 2018.
For those wanting more information about this next meeting, whether to attend or present, contact bdi-metabolism@monash.edu