Big Ten Academic Alliance Lipids inaugural symposium participants.
L-R: Featured speaker James Ntambi (Wisconsin), and Rutgers hosts Dawn Brasaemle, Harini Sampath (former student of Ntambi), George Carman, and Loredana Quadro.
On November 10, 2016, the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research hosted the inaugural symposium of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Lipids entitled “Lipids and Metabolic Diseases II”. The goal of the symposium was to bring together the lipid community from across the BTAA to discuss the state of science in the role of lipids in health and disease. The symposium, which took place at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health on the G.H. Cook Campus at Rutgers, featured speakers from Rutgers, The Ohio State University, Penn State, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, University of Nebraska, Purdue University, and Michigan State University. This renowned group of scientists shared their knowledge, results, and insights into how lipids relate to metabolic diseases.
The symposium was well attended and included 125 participants, along with 70 who viewed the symposium by webinar. Attendees represented a number of universities participating in lipid research, as well as members from the health care industry.
L-R: Kim Buhman (Purdue), Paul Black (Nebraska), IFNH director Peter Gillies, Concetta DeRusso (Nebraska), and David Bernlohr (Minnesota).
In addition to the featured speakers and discussions, one of the highlights of the symposium was an energized poster session of research presented by students and postdocs. The event was preceded by a dinner reception and brain storming session of the BTAA leaders of the lipid community who unanimously agreed to continue to meet as a group and to foster research collaborations and mentor the next generation of lipid researchers. Plans were confirmed for Purdue University to host the next BTAA Lipids symposium in the fall 2017.
George Carman, director of the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research reflected on the opportunity to participate in the BTAA. “Being a member of the Big Ten goes far beyond athletics and getting beat up on the gridiron. The faculty, postdoctoral associates/fellows, and graduate/undergraduate students performing research involved with lipids can take advantage of the opportunities afforded to Big Ten member institutions.”
Participants at poster session.
The Rutgers Center for Lipid Research (RCLR) is a center of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, & Health that promotes intra- and inter-institutional and multidisciplinary research in the biochemical, biophysical, cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism, and extending this information to the underpinnings of lipid-based diseases such as obesity, lipodystrophy, diabetes, and heart disease.
The program for the inaugural symposium, which includes the list of speakers, is on the RCLR website.
