Metabolic Remodeling in Health and Disease: From Molecules to Organelle to Society

Morning: The Fundamentals of Cell Metabolism

9:30 – 10:00: Course introduction and group assignments

10:00 - 10:45: John Jones (CNC/CIBB, Portugal), “What is metabolism?”

10:45 - 11:00: Break

11:00 – 11:45: Paulo Oliveira (CNC/CIBB, Portugal), “Power-Up: The follies of mitochondrial metabolism in health and disease”

 Afternoon: Techniques and Models to Study Cell Metabolism

14:00 – 14:45: Vilma Sardão (CNC/CIBB, Portugal), ”Methodologies for assessing mitochondrial respiration”

14:45 – 15:30: Paulo Matafome (iCBR/CIBB, Portugal) “Models for the study of metabolism”

15:30 - 15:45 - Break

15:45 – 16:05: Teresa Oliveira (CNC/CIBB, Portugal) “(Biological) data practices and science integrity” 

16:05 - 16:35: Francisco Pereira (CISUC, Portugal) “Machine learning meets cell biology and biomedicine”

16:35: Students group work

Morning: Metabolism and Disease I

9:30 – 10:15: Manuela Ferreira (CNC/CIBB, Portugal), “Micronutrient metabolism and innate-like immune system”

10:15 – 11:00: Nuno Raimundo (CNC/CIBB, Portugal) “Mitochondria and lysosomes at the helm of metabolism and cell fate”

11:00 - 11:15: Break

11:15 – 12:00: Robert Taylor (Newcastle University) “Investigating the molecular basis of mitochondrial genetic disease”

 

Afternoon: Spinning-off Research

14:00 – 14:30: Martin Winter (micro-biolytics GmbH, Germany) “How I became an entrepreneur as a PhD student”

14:30 – 15:00: José Duarte (MitoTAG, Portugal) “MitoTAG, from bench to start-up”

15:00 – 15:30:  John Jones (SEAentia, Portugal) “SEAentia: A metabolic approach to aquaculture”

15:30 – 15:45: Break

15:45 – 16:15: Barry Bochner (Biolog, USA) “Metabolic profiling microarrays of cells and mitochondria”

16:15: Students group work

 

Morning: 

9:30-10:00. João Ramalho-Santos (CNC/CIBB & DCV/FCTUC, Portugal) “Scientists & Society: Why (and how) should we bother”?

10:00-10:45. Mireia Alemany-Pagès (CNC/CIBB & IIIUC, Portugal) “Communicating NAFLD with comics”

10:45 - 11:00 Break

 11:00 - 12:00 Maria Kristiansen (Department of Public Health & Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) “Interdisciplinarity and participatory designs to enhance understandings of aging”

Afternoon: 

14:00 – 14:45: Anabela Marisa Azul (CNC/CIBB, Portugal), “(Un)Healthy lifestyles, environment, well-being and health capability in rural neighbourhoods: a community-based cross-sectional study”

14:45- 15:30: Sara Araújo (FEUC/CES) “Challenges and possibilities of interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies. Is there anything to learn from social sciences?”

15:30 – 15:45: Break

15:45 – 16:30:  Adelino Gonçalves (DARQ/FCTUC & CES-UC, Portugal) “Urban dimension of heritage and rehabilitation as development policies. Is it translational to human health and well-being?”

16:30: Students group work

Morning: Metabolism and Disease II

9:30 – 9:50: Filomena Silva (CNC/CIBB, Portugal) “Disruption of cell metabolism in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”

9:50 – 10:10: Maria Ines Sousa (CNC/CIBB, Portugal) “Metabolic regulation of paused pluripotency”

10:10 – 10:50: Afshan Malik (King’s College London, UK) “Mitochondrial dysfunction in diabetic complications”

10:50 - 11:00: Break

11:00 – 11:45: João Teodoro (CNC/CIBB, Portugal) “The soluble adenylyl cyclase inhibitor LRE1 or how contrary results are even better results”

11:45 – 12:05: Ana I. Duarte (CNC/CIBB, Portugal) “Brain (dys)metabolism in cardiovascular risk and (reproductive) aging”

Afternoon: Metabolism and Disease III

14:00 – 14:45: Kendall Wallace (University of Minnesota, Duluth, USA) “Mitochondrial senescence and the consequence to metabolic regulation in the aging individual” 

14:45 – 15:30: Paulo Gameiro (University College of London, UK) “Metabolic shifts and RNA modifications in gene regulation”

15:30 – 15:45: Break

15:45 – 16:15: Ana Teixeira (FCDEF, Portugal) “Physical activity, metabolism, and the immune system

16:15: Students group work

9:30 – 12:00: Student Presentations

14:00 - 15:00: CNC Seminar: Jiri Neuzil (Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague) “SUCLG2 is a new tumour suppressor in paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma”

 

For the Course evaluation, we propose a very challenging task.

In groups of 4 students (defined by draft), you need to create a fictitious business idea focusing on any topic covered in this course (e.g. biomarker discovery, intervention, novel equipment for diagnosis, etc, all focusing on metabolism and disease) and defend your proposal in a 7-minute pitch to potential investors. Think Shark Tank but CNC-style and with much sharper teeth.

The presentation can be supported by any visual means (e.g. Powerpoint slides, MVP, etc) and must contain the following elements:

a) Problem to be solved

b) Current ideas/competition and limitations

c)  Your idea

d) Why your idea is better it better than the competition

e) Team

f) Funding requested / Predicted sales

g) Milestones of your project / possible exit

h) Closing punch line.

 

Following your business proposal, you also need to include a 4 min Science Communication/Community Engagement Plan related to your project. This can be tailored to the general population, or to particular stakeholders (considering age/literacy groups, susceptible individuals, patient groups/organizations, students/schools, etc). The choice is yours but must be clear from the start.

All group members must present and answer questions.