On November 8, the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research (RCLR) held its 9th annual symposium under the theme, “Lipids in Membrane Organization and Translational Medicine.” The symposium, which was held at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health on the Rutgers–New Brunswick campus, was attended by more than 120 participants. The annual event drew researchers from all three Rutgers campuses, along with scientists from neighboring universities as well as local Pharma and biotech companies.
The symposium brought together an outstanding group of established and early-career investigators who shared their knowledge, results and insights into how the biophysical properties of lipids govern the structure and function of membranes and how basic science leads into translational medicine. The organizing committee for this year’s event was led by Alvaro Toledo, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, and George M. Carman, Distinguished Professor and Board of Governors Professor in the Department of Food Science.
L-R: Poster award winners Natalie Burchat, Ruta Jog, and Robert Tancer.
The speaker sessions covered a range of lipid-related topics. The morning session commenced with a talk by Wonhwa Cho from the University of Illinois-Chicago who spoke about the connection between cholesterol and cancer with possible therapies. Kandice R. Levental from the University of Virginia then spoke on how the asymmetric distribution of phospholipids and cholesterol results in unique plasma membrane properties. Erwin London from Stony Brook University spoke on the role of lipid composition and asymmetry in plasma membrane raft formation and function. The morning session ended with a presentation from Itay Budin of the University of California San Diego who spoke on phospholipid curvature and how it allows deep sea animals to live under high pressure.
Following an exciting poster session where graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows presented their research, the afternoon session continued with a talk on membrane bridge-like lipid transport proteins by Aaron Neiman of Stony Brook University. Suzanne Jackowski from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital anchored the session with an interesting talk on the challenges of translational metabolic medicine based on her work with the lipid metabolic intermediate coenzyme A.
Distinguished Professor George Carman presents the George M. and Maureen D. Carman Prize in Lipids to Huyen Le.
Best poster awards were presented to Natalie Burchat, Olivia Groh, Ruta Jog and Robert Tancer. Huyen Le was awarded the George M. and Maureen D. Carman Prize in Lipids, an endowed prize awarded for outstanding research achievement in the area of lipid biochemistry. The prize provides financial assistance and encourage lipid-related research of graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows and associates in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
RCLR is a center of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health that promotes multidisciplinary research on the biochemical, biophysical, cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism, and extends this information to the underpinnings of lipid-based diseases such as obesity, lipodystrophy, diabetes, and heart disease. RCLR fosters interaction among faculty, postdoctoral associates, and students across the university. For more information, visit rclr.rutgers.edu.
