Symposiums

The NORC Symposium

The 2025 NORC Symposium will be held on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 in D1.602 8:30 am-1:00 pm.

Symposium Keynote Speaker

Visiting NORC INSPIRE Scholars

NORC Pilot & Feasibility Grant Awardees

Agenda

8:30 – 8:35 a.m.

Jeffrey Zigman, M.D., Ph.D. – Welcome Remarks

8:35–8:55 a.m.

Amanda Casey, Ph.D. – "FicD-mediated AMPylation Regulates Pancreatic Homeostasis"

8:55–9:15 a.m.

Christopher Hearon, Ph.D. – "The Effect of Adiposity on Muscle and Microvascular Function in HFpEF"

9:15–9:35 a.m.

Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, Ph.D. – "Identifying Strategies to Curtail Weight Regain After GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Treatment Cessation"

9:35–9:55 a.m.

Suraj Patel, M.D., Ph.D. – "Regulation of Body Weight and Metabolism by Liver ISGylation"

9:55–10:15 a.m.

Binu Thomas, Ph.D. – "Diabetes and Obesity: Unraveling Their Impact on Health"

10:15–10:45 a.m.

Coffee Break

10:45–11:15 a.m.

Ana P. Valencia, Ph.D. – "Mitochondrial Changes with Weight Loss"

11:15–11:45 a.m.

Nadejda Bozadjieva Kramer, Ph.D. – "The Gut-liver Communication During Obesity and Rapid Weight Loss”

11:45–12:00 noon

Coffee Break

12:00-1:00 p.m.

Diego Perez-Tilve, Ph.D. – "Role of G-Protein Signaling in AGRP Neurons in the Control of Glucose Homeostasis"

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The McGarry Symposium

The McGarry Symposium is named in honor of John Dennis McGarry, Ph.D., who dedicated his 34-year career to diabetes research and made a series of groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of mammalian metabolism.

In 1968, he began working in the laboratory of Daniel W. Foster, M.D., who became UT Southwestern's third Chair of Internal Medicine.

Dr. McGarry's scientific career included discovering that the molecule maloynyl-CoA, an intermediate in de novo fatty acid synthesis, was also responsible for the regulation of hepatic fatty acid oxydation and ketogenesis, by virtue of its ability to inhibit the enzyme carnitine palmitoyltransferase. This mechanism for the reciprocal regulation of hepatic fatty acid synthesis and oxidation has since been shown to be the basis for regulation of fatty acid oxidation in all body tissues.

In the early 1980s, he demonstrated the importance of the "indirect" gluconeogenic pathway for the synthesis of hepatic glycogen.

Dr. McGarry's proposal that disordered metabolism of fatty acids, rather than that of glucose, may be the primary cause in the development of type 2 diabetes revolutionized thinking among diabetes researchers.

The next McGarry Symposium will be held in 2026.

A Look Back: 2024 Symposium Speakers

"Deletion of TorsinA, an AAA+ ATPase Results in Accumulation of Lipid Droplets in the ER and Severe Reductions in VLDL Secretion"

Henry Ginsberg, M.D., Ph.D. – Columbia University

"Exploring Dietary Interventions to Target Cancer and Obesity"

Maralice Conacci-Sorrell, Ph.D. – UT Southwestern

"Thermogenic Adipose Tissue: From Form to Function"

Paul Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. – The Rockefeller University

"Neural Mechanisms that Control Food Intake and Metabolism"

Martin Meyers, Ph.D. – University of Michigan

"Insights into Tumor-Host Interactions Driving Cachexia"

Rodney Infante, M.D., Ph.D. – UT Southwestern

"Searching for Diamonds in the Sand from GWAS to Molecular Insights into Islet Cell Dysfunction"

Anna Gloyn, Ph.D. – Stanford University