Plenary & Keynote Lectures
Speakers were selected on the basis of submissions by the commitees, which were equally composed of the four host societies.
We are delighted to announce the confirmed plenary and keynote speakers:
Plenary speakers
Plenary Lecture
Saturday, 17 September 2022, 10:45
Peppi Karppinen (publication name Koivunen)
MD, PhD, University of Oulu, Finland
I have >30 years of experience studying the enzymology of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (2OGDDs), such as the collagen prolyl 4-hydroxylases (P4Hs), the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) P4Hs that target the HIF alfa subunits for proteasomal degradation under normoxia and the histone lysine demethylases (KDMs) which regulate gene expression via chromatin structure and are often dysregulated in cancer. We were the first to show that the HIF-P4Hs have a very low affinity for oxygen making these enzymes cellular oxygen sensors. We were also the first to characterize in detail their catalytic and inhibitory properties which laid the basis for the development of HIF-P4H inhibitors aimed for therapeutic applications, such as treatment of anemia, to date accepted also in Europe. We have generated a unique mouse line which has a continuous activation of the HIF response and has allowed us to study the effects of long-term activation of this pathway. We were the first to show that such mice are protected against cardiac and skeletal muscle ischemia. We recently reported ground breaking discoveries that these mice are also protected from obesity, metabolic dysfunction, atherosclerosis and fatty liver disease of all etiology, and importantly, this protection was also demonstrated in wild-type mice treated with a pharmacologic HIF-P4H inhibitor. We also reported recently that cancer and hypoxia-associated chromatin hypermethylation involves direct sensing of oxygen by distinct KDMs. These data suggest that among 2OGDDs additional O2 sensors to HIF-P4Hs exist in the nucleus.
Gero Miesenboeck, University of Oxford, UK
Silvia Priori, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA & SB, Italy
Volker Vallon, University of California San Diego, USA
Keynote speakers
Otto Hutter Prize Lecture
Sunday, 18 September 2022, 11:45
Dee U. Silverthorn
Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita of Physiology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Dee Unglaub Silverthorn is a distinguished teaching professor emerita of physiology at Dell Medical School of the University of Texas-Austin, where she continues to teach part-time for the College of Natural Sciences. Dee trained as an invertebrate physiologist at the Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of South Carolina, and her research has focused on epithelial transport in crustaceans and chick chorioallantoic membrane, but her passion is students and education. Since arriving in Texas in 1986 she has taught human and comparative physiology, experimental design, and global health systems to students ranging from medical students to pre-health professions students to nonmajors. The classroom became her laboratory as she explored new educational strategies, and she was among the first to use active learning, flipped classrooms, response systems, concept mapping, and project-based student practicals. She also mentors trainees and early-career faculty on developing teaching skills. Dee has received many teaching awards for her work, including the American Physiological Society 9th Arthur C. Guyton Physiology Educator of the Year and the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Dee is the author of a widely used textbook, Human Physiology: An Integrated Approach, now in its 8th edition, and she is the 2022-2023 president of the American Physiological Society.
Sofia-Iris Bibli, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
The Physiological Society Sharpey-Schafer Prize Lecture
Claudine Blin, UCA-CNRS Laboratory Physiology and Molecular Medicine, France
Walter Boron, Case Western Reserve University, USA
Bernd Fakler, University of Freiburg, Germany
Maria Fitzgerald, University College London, UK
The Physiological Society Bayliss-Starling Prize Lecture
Merry Lindsey, University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA
The Physiological Society Michael de Burgh Daly Prize Lecture
Alain Lacampagne, CNRS, France
Bente Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Stefan Trapp, University College London, UK
