H.C. Jacobaeus Symposium

Research Response to the Obesity Challenge

Tuborg Havn December 14th 2012

In March this year, the European Parliament agreed on a resolution addressing the obesity epidemic. The resolution stated that obesity is the most important health challenge for Europe, and the Parliament urged all European countries to initiate road maps to fight obesity. These road maps should include research, the health care system and the society at large. EU therefore urged the countries to fund more research directed to obesity. To help guide novel research in this area, this symposium will present and discuss future-direct avenues for the research.

The symposium will also honor that it was on December 12, 1922, i.e., exactly 90 years ago, professor and Nobel Laureate August Krogh together with his wife Marie Krogh returned to Europe from North America with the rights from Toronto to manufacture insulin for the Scandinavian market, which was the start of what is now Novo Nordisk.

12.30 / Professor Bo Ahrén, Lund University / Welcome and introduction
12.40 / Professor Sir Philip Cohen, University of Dundee / Innate immunity and diabetes/obesity
13.10 / Professor Michael Czech, University of Massachusetts Medical School / RNAi-based therapeutic strategies for inflammation and metabolic disease
13.40 / Professor Oluf Pedersen, Copenhagen University / Gut bacteria – their contribution to human metabolic health and metabolic disorders
14.10 / Coffee
14.45 / Professor Barbara B Kahn, Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center / Intertissue communication in the regulation of insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis
15.15 / Professor Juleen Zierat, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and Copenhagen University / Acute exercise and contraction-mediated gene activation
15.45 / Professor Peter Arner, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm / Turnover of human fat cells and their lipid content – implications for obesity
16.15 / Coffee
16.25 / Professor Ulf Smith, Göteborg University
All speakers / Discussion on topic
What is the research challenge for obesity today and tomorrow?
17.25 / Professor Birgitte Nauntofte, Novo Nordisk Foundation / August and Marie Krogh – 90 years commemoration