Events
Our upcoming meeting, The Role of Insulin in Whole-Body Homeostasis Beyond Glycaemic Control, is rooted in the University of Aberdeen’s historic connection to the discovery of insulin. In 1923, John Macleod, an Alumni of the University of Aberdeen, and Frederick Banting were awarded the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking discovery, which—just a year earlier—enabled the successful treatment of 14-year-old Leonard Thompson with an insulin extract. While the intracellular signaling pathway linking insulin to glucose transport is well understood, the mechanisms behind insulin resistance remain unclear. This meeting, in the highly appropriate setting of the University of Aberdeen, will explore this and more on 1 – 2 September.
The history of the discovery and understanding of insulin goes back to the 19th Century when Mering and Minkowski reported that removal of the pancreas in dogs resulted in hyperglycaemia, they deduced that the pancreas played a role in glycaemic control but did not identify the mechanism. Despite reports of treating diabetes with pancreatic juice (Mackenzie 1893, Wood 1893) it took until 1910 when Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer (a founding member of the Physiological Society) named the pancreatic autocoid as insuline in his 1916 textbook.
The 1923 Nobel prize winners, Banting, Best and Macleod, successfully treated a 14-year-old boy by injecting him with isolated and purified insulin. More recently, it has been recognised that insulin is a pleiotropic hormone that affects a wide range of physiological functions, and this meeting focuses on the wider aspects of insulin beyond glycemic control.
The meeting covers nine different topics that are all related to insulin. The meeting starts with a discussion on the role of insulin on transport of creatine and carnitine that affect muscle metabolism both at rest and during exercise, related to this introduction is the next topic that examines relationship between insulin and protein metabolism and insulin induced effects on lipid metabolism.
The focus of the meeting then addresses the role of insulin on appetite, mood and the central nervous system. A reassessment of the glycaemic and insulinaemic index of foods will conclude the effects of insulin on metabolic homeostasis. Beyond metabolism, insulin has been identified to have more systemic effects and the meeting will also focus on insulin as a mediator in vascular tone and the role of insulin on mitochondrial function/dysfunction. Finally, the meeting considers the pancreas with a discussion on alpha and beta cell interaction and function and the successes and challenges of the artificial pancreas.
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting! Visit our event page for further details about registration and abstract submissions.
