You are invited to attend this seminar hosted by the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology:
Date: Monday, 4 March 2024
Time: 11.00AM – 12.00PM
Venue: IMCB Seminar Room 03-46, Level 3 Proteos, Biopolis, Singapore 138673 (Physical)
Speaker: Prof Scott A. Summers, University of Utah
Host: Prof Han Weiping, IMCB
Ceramides and the Two Phases of Lipotoxicity
Abstract
Overnutrition, inflammation, and genetic aberrations promote the accumulation of sphingolipids such as ceramides, which alter metabolic programs and induce apoptosis in a wide range of cell types. In humans, serum ceramides are biomarkers of diabetes and major adverse cardiac events, and clinics have started measuring circulating ceramides as markers of disease risk. In rodents, inhibiting ceramide biosynthesis ameliorates diabetes, steatohepatitis, kidney injury, and heart failure. The author will discuss the evolution of this pathway as a signal of lipid excess and the therapeutic potential of a new approach to inactivate ceramides and combat cardiometabolic pathologies.
Biography
Dr. Summers completed his BS in Biochemistry at Indiana University, his PhD in Physiology at Southern Illinois University, and his postdoctoral training in Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as a Distinguished Professor and Inaugural Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, the William J. Rutter Presidential Endowed Chair of Biochemistry, and the Co-Director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center at the University of Utah. In 2015, he co-founded Centaurus Therapeutics, a USA-based biotechnology company that is developing new ceramide-lowering therapeutics to combat the lipotoxic underpinnings of cardiometabolic disease.
ALL ARE WELCOME (No registration required)
