The effects of physical inactivity are, literally, hazardous to your health. Although the detrimental effects of being inactive are generally thought to be associated with childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes, they have a significant impact on other illnesses. Physical inactivity contributed at least 25 percent to the prevalence of hip fractures, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, and colon cancer according to recent data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Research aimed at identifying the molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms that underlie the link between inactivity and disease may yield key clues for developing effective prevention and therapeutic strategies. The upcoming conference co-sponsored by The American Physiological Society (APS) will convene researchers for discussions and presentations to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms and consequences of inactivity.
Entitled Integrative Biology of Exercise VI, the event will be held October 10-13, 2012 in Westminster, Colorado, and is a collaborative effort between the APS, the American College of Sports Medicine and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. The conference is supported in part by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, an institute of the National Institutes of Health, GlaxoSmithKline, Inc., Stealth Peptides, Inc., and Seahorse Biosciences. The full program is online at http://bit.ly/NW1PLP.
The conference, the latest in a series, will build on prior themes involving the cellular and molecular aspects of muscle plasticity and function, cardiovascular biology and control, cell signaling and metabolic control, and the integration of aligned disciplines which underpin exercise responses. This year's program will put particular emphasis on defining the underlying mechanisms responsible for the health benefits of exercise and the latest research incorporating exercise in personalized medicine. Symposia and poster abstracts will include hundreds of new discoveries on the effects of exercise or inactivity.
Researchers from leading universities and medical centers in the U.S., Canada and other countries include have been invited to speak. The featured speakers and topics are:
Geoffrey Ginsberg, Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy
Geoffrey Ginsberg, M.D., Ph.D., will give the conference's first plenary lecture, "Towards Personalized Lifestyle Medicine" on Thursday (10/11/12). In addition to directing Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Ginsberg is also a professor of medicine and pathology at Duke University Medical Center. His research involves the development of novel paradigms for developing and translating genomic information into medical practice and the integration of personalized medicine into health care.
Leslie Leinwand, University of Colorado-Boulder
Leslie Leinwand, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder and chief scientific officer of the BioFrontiers Institute. Her research involves the genetic manipulation of cardiac and skeletal muscle development and function in mice, gene therapy, and cardiac genetic disease. She will deliver her plenary lecture, "Adaptations of the Heart: Traditional and Non-Traditional Research Approaches," on Friday (10/12/12).
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