Cantoblanco Workshops on Biology
THE MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY OF OBESITY AND BONE REMODELING
Workshop
organized by Jorge Moscat, María Teresa Díaz-Meco and George Thomas
September, 24-27, 2006, Campus of the Universidad Autónoma de
Madrid,
Obesity is an increasingly important public health issue in
westernized societies that often leads to atherosclerosis, cardiovascular
pathologies and diabetes. The metabolic processes that underlie the regulation
of adipocyte growth and differentiation as well those
controlling glucose homeostasis have recently been the subject of intense
research, and its study offers opportunities for the discovery of novel
therapeutic targets for obesity and diabetes. On the other hand, vertebrate
bones are regulated by a finely tuned balance between the actions of bone
forming cells, termed osteoblasts, and bone degrading cells termed osteoclasts.
The perturbance of this equilibrium may give rise to serious health problems
such as osteoporosis, which is dramatically induced during menopause,
rheumatoid arthritis, and bone metastasis. Recent data have unveiled the
existence of networks linking the central nervous system with obesity and bone
physiology. Through genetic, molecular and cellular studies, several signaling
molecules that are known to be involved in the control of cell growth,
differentiation and apoptosis have been implicated in these complex processes.
However, a complete picture of the relationships between the different
signaling pathways and their relative importance in vivo has yet to be discerned.
In this workshop we intend to generate an interdisciplinary discussion on these
pathways with special focus on the signaling cascades that are physiologically
relevant in vivo and of potential interest for the discovery of new therapeutic
strategies.
Speakers include:
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