Symposiums

The NORC Symposium

The 2025 NORC Mini Symposium will be held on Wednesday July 30, from 9:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. in D1.700.

Symposium Speakers

Peng Li, Ph.D.

Keynote Speaker

President, Zhengzhou University

Xiao-Wei Chen, Ph.D.

Professor, Peking University

Dijin Xu. Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Westlake University

Agenda

9:45 – 10:00 a.m.

Guest Arrival – D1.700

10:00–10:50 a.m. Session 1: Presentation and Q&A

Xiao-Wei Chen, Ph.D.– "Crossing the Ts in Lipid Control: From TMEM to Torsins"

11:00–11:50 a.m. – Session 2: Presentation and Q&A

Dijin Xu. Ph.D. – "Molecular Barriers to Virus Entry: How Phospholipid Scramblase 1 Defends Endosomal Membranes"

11:50 a.m.–noon

Pick up Lunch

12:00–1:00 p.m. Keynote Address and Q&A

Peng Li, Ph.D. – "The Regulation of Lipid Droplet Dynamics and Beyond"

1:00–1:15 p.m.

Closing Remarks and Wrap-Up

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.