Great Minds in Genetics, Diet, Environment Discuss Metabolism’s Impact on Cancer, Health
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Desai Sethi Urology Institute’s Miami Symposium on Human Metabolism fuels research collaborations on metabolic processes that govern health and disease, from longevity to cancer.
Symposium photo gallery
Researchers from around the world shared current knowledge and discoveries about how genetics, diet and environment impact health and disease at the February 8 Miami Symposium on Human Metabolism in South Beach.
The event was hosted by the Desai Sethi Urology Institute (DSUI) in conjunction with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The symposium stands out because consumers, researchers and physicians alike can relate to the potential impacts of human metabolism, according to Nima Sharifi, M.D., scientific director of DSUI and professor of urology at the Miller School and symposium director.
“The study of human metabolism pulls together various disciplines that are person- and patient-centric. It relates not just to diseases and things that cause disease but also how to maintain health,” Dr. Sharifi said. “We covered a range of topics, from how inherited genes may influence health or disease to how dietary interventions and other lifestyle factors can maintain a state of health and lessen disease risk.”
Chemistry to Understand Metabolism
In its second year, the goals of the meeting are to understand metabolism by studying its underlying chemistry. That includes how certain foods influence physiology and, ultimately, disease.
“At this year’s meeting, we did a deeper dive into muscle physiology and its influence of muscle metabolism. Other speakers focused on various aspects of metabolism, such as GI physiology, dietary interventions and the impact of metformin, as well as the discovery of how newly discovered metabolites might influence obesity and weight loss,” Dr. Sharifi said.
This year’s program featured guest speakers from UCLA, Stanford University, Columbia University, the University of Texas-San Antonio and the University of Miami. Van Andel Institute, a biomedical research facility, and global experts from Università della Svizzera Italiana in Switzerland and University of Münster in Germany attended.
Nutrition to Improve Health, Longevity
An expert in obesity and type 2 diabetes translational research, Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., Boyd Professor and Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, presented “Nutritional Strategies to Improve Metabolic Health and Potentially Longevity.”
“Dietary interventions have been suggested for populations in general. Those include adherence to some proven diets, such as the Mediterranean or the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. However, the approach of ‘one size fits all’ needs to be challenged by moving towards precision nutrition,” Dr. Ravussin said.
The Genetics-Gut Connection in Cancer Outcomes
Dr. Sharifi presented “Steroid Metabolism and Physiology,” a topic that relates to physiology and cancer that have shared, inherited genetics that seem to influence more than the likelihoods of prostate cancer survival or death.
“We haven’t published on this yet, but shared at the meeting influences that we’ve discovered on the gut,” Dr. Sharifi said. “This is the result of work we have been doing for a long time, which aims to answer the question, ‘How does steroid metabolism influence the gut?’ Our research suggests that when it comes to steroid metabolism, a particular inherited gene influences the gut and the body’s response to steroids.”
A Better Way to Study Human Metabolism
Ashutosh Agarwal, Ph.D., DSUI director of engineering and applied physics and co-director of Engineering Cancer Cures at Sylvester, presented “Physiomimetic Microsystems for Studying Metabolism.” The topic introduces two new species, Homo Chippus (a milliscale version of a human) and Homo Chippiens (a microscale version of a human), which his lab has been developing as improved models to study human metabolism.
These species offer several advantages over conventional cell culture and animal models.
“Human cells are cultured in biomimetic environments so they don’t feel homesick. The signals are not diluted so they can be detected with high sensitivity, and organ-organ interactions can be isolated and studied in a modular fashion,” Dr. Agarwal said. “These human-on-chip models are being deployed collaboratively in both academic labs for basic mechanistic studies, as well as in drug discovery efforts by pharmaceutical companies.”
Researchers from MIT, Harvard, the University of Miami and other research hubs and academic centers presented about 15 posters before the meeting’s close.
“The Miami Symposium on Human Metabolism is a great meeting for interchange of scientific ideas, to develop new directions in the field and to establish collaborations to make new discoveries,” Dr. Sharifi said.
Tags: Desai Sethi Urology Institute, Dr. Ashutosh Agarwal, Dr. Nima Sharifi, Engineering Cancer Cures, metabolics, nutrition, prostate cancer, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
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