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)
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.
The Physiological Society’s Annual Review Prize Lecture
Plenary Lecture
Saturday, 17 September 2022, 16:45
Gero Miesenböck
University of Oxford, UK
Gero Miesenböck is Waynflete Professor of Physiology and founding Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford in 2007, he held faculty appointments at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Yale University.
Gero has received many awards for the invention of optogenetics, including the Brain Prize, the Massry Prize, and the Shaw Prize. He is a member of the Austrian and German Academies of Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Plenary Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 09:15
Silvia G Priori
Silvia Priori, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA & SB, Italy
A native of Torino, Italy, Dr. Silvia G Priori earned at the University of Milan her MD, the specialization in cardiology, and her PhD in Cardiac Pathophysiology. Subssequently she moved to the United States at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, Missouri to work as a post-doctoral student and to train in cellular electrophysiology.
Upon returning to Italy she initiated a second post-doctoral training in molecular biology at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine under the supervision of Professor Andrea Ballabio.
In 2001 she settled at the University of Pavia as associate professor where she initiated her academic career and established her clinical group and her basic science research team focusing on the clinical management of patients with genetic arrhythmias and dissecting fundamental mechanisms of the same pathologies.
Between 2008-2016 Prof Priori brought her expertise on the diagnosis and management of inherited arrhythmias and cardiomyopathies to the USA where she worked as Professor of Medicine and funded and directed the Cardiovascular Genetic Program at New York University (NYU), in New York City.
As of today, Dr Priori, is Full Professor of Cardiology in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Director of the Fellowship in Cardiology Program at the University of Pavia and since 2017 she is Director of the Molecular Cardiology laboratories at the Centro National de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III in Madrid.
On the clinical side she is Director of the Cardiology division at the Istituti Clinici Scientifici (ICS) Maugeri in Pavia. Dr Priori has significantly contributed to the understanding of mechanisms of inherited arrhythmias by identifying several disease causing genes, discovering important genotype-phenotype correlations that are driving current management of the diseases. More recently she moved to the development of gene therapy strategies for hereditary arrhythmias and is now pursuing the goal to bring them to a first in man study. In 2016 Dr. Priori was awarded the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant that is currently funding her gene therapy research.
Dr. Priori is the author or coauthor of more than 350 original articles, which are published in high ranking, peer-reviewed international journals. She has been nominated among ISI Thomson-Reuters Highly Cited Researchers in the world since 2014.
Dr Priori has received a large number of prestigious honors and awards from scientific societies around the world, including the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Heart Rhythm Society, and the Outstanding Research in Pediatric Cardiology award of the American Heart Association, the Harvey Lecture and gold medal for basic science of the European Society of Cardiology.
Plenary Lecture
Sunday, 18 September 2022, 10:45
Volker Vallon
Division of Nephrology & Hypertension, University of California, San Diego, USA
Keynote speakers
Du Bois-Reymond Prize Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 17:30Xianshu Bai
Group leader, Department of Molecular Physiology, Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine (CIPMM), University of Saarland, Homburg, GermanyXianshu Bai is group leader in the Department of Molecular Physiology, headed by Prof. Frank Kirchhoff, in Homburg, Germany. She obtained her PhD from the University of Saarland in 2015. During her PhD and postdoctoral training, she studied the response of oligodendrocyte lineage cells to brain injuries combing two photon live imaging and transgenic mouse models. In 2018, she started her own research group in the department. Her research focuses on the molecular and cellular interactions of neurons and oligodendrocyte lineage cells during development, in health and various diseases.
The Physiological Society Sharpey-Schafer Prize Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 12:30Iris-Sofia Bibli
Institute for Vascular Signalling, Vascular Research Centre, Medical Department, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Du Bois-Reymond Prize Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 17:30Sebastian H. Bitzenhofer
Institute of Developmental Neurophysiology, Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Falkenried 94, 20251, Hamburg, GermanySebastian Bitzenhofer recently become a Junior Research Group Leader associated to the Institute of Developmental Neurophysiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. He received his Dr. rer. nat. awarded summa cum laude at the University of Hamburg in 2017, before he did a postdoc at the Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior at the University of California San Diego. He uses a mix of electrophysiological and optogenetic approaches to study neural circuits and population dynamics in mice. In 2021 he was awarded with the Bernard Katz Lecture for his work on the development of the prefrontal cortex.
Sunday, 18 September 2022, 11:45
Claudine Blin
UCA-CNRS Laboratory Physiology and Molecular Medicine, France
Saturday, 17 September 2022, 11:45
Walter F. Boron
Distinguished University Professor, Myers/Scarpa Professor and Chair; Dept. Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA
Dr. Boron is Distinguished University Professor and Myers/Scarpa Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at Case Western Reserve University. He earned his AB summa cum laude in chemistry at Saint Louis University, and his MD and PhD (Physiology & Biophysics) at Washington University in St. Louis. Boron joined Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow with Emile Boulpaep in 1978, and remained there for the next 29 years, serving three terms as Chairman of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology. In 2007, he returned to his hometown of Cleveland to assume his present position.
Boron developed his life-long interest in acid-base transport and intracellular-pH (pHi) regulation during his PhD studies with Albert Roos (his official mentor), Paul De Weer, and John Russell; and his interest in renal HCO3− transport with postdoctoral mentor Boulpaep. Boron and collaborators described the first example of dynamic pHi regulation, discovered the electrogenic Na/HCO3 cotransporter (NBCe1), and introduced many of the paradigms used to study pHi regulation. Their cloning of the cDNA encoding NBCe1 led to the identification of numerous, related HCO3− transporters. Their invention of out-of-equilibrium CO2/HCO3− solutions led to the discovery of receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase γ (RPTPγ) as a molecular sensor of extracellular CO2 and HCO3−, and modulator of acid-base transport Their encounter with the first CO2-impermeable membrane led to the discovery of the first example of a membrane protein with permeability to a dissolved gas. Boron’s group currently focuses on three related areas: the molecular physiology of the Na+-coupled HCO3 − transporters, RPTPγ and RPTPζ, as well as CO2 and O2 channels.
Boron is former President of the American Physiological Society (APS) and former Secretary-General of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS), as well as former editorin-chief of two journals, Physiological Reviews and Physiology. He is currently chair of the IUPS Publications Committee. Boron and Emile Boulpaep co-edit the textbooks Medical Physiology and Concise Medical Physiology.
Among Boron’s accolades are the Pitts Lecture/Award (IUPS, 1993), Gottschalk Lecture/Award (APS, 1998), NIH MERIT Award (2002), an honorary doctorate (Aarhus University, 2014), National Academy of Medicine (USA, 2014), Fellow of the APS (2015), and Fenn Lecture (IUPS, 2022).
Acta Physiologica Award Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 17:30
Inge Depoortere
University of Leuven, Translational Research Center for Gastrointestinal Disorders (Targid), Gut Peptide Research Lab, Leuven, Belgium
Inge Depoortere is full professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium. After her master studies in biochemistry, she obtained her PhD in Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine in Leuven in 1991. After her postdoctoral studies, she was appointed in 2002 at KU Leuven and since 2008 she is head of the “Gut Peptide Research Lab” of the Translational Research Center for Gastrointestinal Disorders.
In the past, she mainly studied the role of gastrointestinal hormones in the regulation of gastrointestinal motility under normal and pathological conditions. During the last 10 years, she started two new research lines which include 1) the chemosensing mechanisms of epithelial cells in the gut, 2) the cross-talk between circadian clocks and nutrient sensing pathways in the gut to manage chronodisruption.
She has published 151 papers (h-index 44) in peer reviewed international journals. During the last 5 years, 38% of her publications are ranked in the top 5% journals.
She has been section editor of BMC Gastroenterology (2008-2015) and editorial board member and member of the management committee of Neurogastroenterology&Motility (2009-2017). Currently, she is associate editor of the American Journal of Physiology, Peptides and EBioMedicine.
I . Depoortere is (co)promotor of (4) 15 doctoral theses. She has several teaching assignments within the program of biomedical sciences and medicine. Since 2014 she is member of the PhD thesis advisory committee of the doctoral school of biomedical sciences. Since 2018, she is member of the research council of KU Leuven and was member of the executive body of the research council of KU Leuven between 2019-2021.
Acta Physiologica Award Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 17:30Guillaume De Lartigue
Principle Investigator, Monell Chemical Senses Center; Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, USAGuillaume de Lartigue holds a joint appointment as a Principle Investigator at the Monell Chemical Senses Center and Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. He leads a research program studying the neurobiology of feeding behavior. His lab has been at the forefront of developing pharmacological, molecular and genetic tools to visualize, map, record, and manipulate vagal sensory neurons. His team has identified previously unsuspected roles of gut-brain interoception in various aspects of higher-order feeding behaviors. His aim is to develop interoceptive therapeutics for treating obesity.
Dr. de Lartigue has received many awards and honors for his work, including from the Wellcome Trust, the Burgen Prize from the Academia Europaea, and a Pathways to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health. He serves on the advisory board of Bariatek, is Associate Editor for Peptides, and is currently the elected treasurer for the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior.
Before moving to Philadelphia in 2022, Dr. de Lartigue held independent research positions at the University of Florida, and Yale University/JB Pierce laboratory
Friday, 16 September 2022, 12:30
Bernd Fakler
Physiology, University of Freiburg, DE
Bernd Fakler is an MD and Director of the Institute of Physiology at the University of Freiburg.
After studying medicine and physics (1985 – 1992), BFakler did his postdoc at the University of Tübingen and the Vollum Institute (OHSU) in Portland with Drs. P. Ruppersberg and J.P. Adelman, respectively. In 2001 he joined the University of Freiburg as a Director at the Institute of Physiology. BFakler coordinated several research consortia in Freiburg and was elected a member of the Leopoldina, the National Academy of Sciences, Germany in 2010.
The research of BFakler is dedicated to understanding rapid signal transduction at and across the plasma membrane of excitable cells on the level of proteins and protein complexes. For these studies he and his group use a broad variety of techniques including high-end biochemistry and MS-based proteomics, electrophysiology in vivo and in vitro, fluorescence and electron-microscopy as well as structural biology.
The Physiological Society Bayliss-Starling Prize Lecture
Saturday, 17 September 2022, 11:45
Maria Fitzgerald
Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, Dept. Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology, University College London, UK
Maria Fitzgerald has worked in pain research all her professional career and is an expert in the biology of pain processing. She graduated from Oxford University in Physiological Sciences and trained with the great pain research scientist, Patrick Wall FRS. Her laboratory in the UCL Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology focusses upon the spinal cord and brain neuronal circuits that underlie acute and chronic pain and how these circuits are shaped in early life. She uses advanced recording techniques in animal models and human participants to understand the mechanisms underlying the short and long-term effects of early life pain. Her lab is internationally recognized for pioneering work in the basic biology of pain and for its impact on pain management in infants, children and young people. She has published over 200 research papers and reviews in pain neurobiology and has received numerous honours and prizes including fellowship of the Royal Society and the Feldberg Foundation Prize. Her work crosses boundaries between cellular and integrative neurobiology, physiology and behaviour and she is notable for collaborating with clinical colleagues: neonatologists, paediatric anaesthesiologists, rheumatologists and psychologists.
Sunday, 18 September 2022, 11:45
Alain Lacampagne
CNRS; University of Montpellier, France
Alain Lacampagne is research director at the CNRS and director of the laboratory of physiology and experimental medicine of the heart and muscles (University of Montpellier, France). After a doctorate obtained in 1995 at the University of Tours (France) he spent 3 years for a postdoctoral internship in the laboratory of Pr. MF Schneider (UMAB, Baltimore, United States). He was appointed in 1999 to the CNRS in the laboratory of Dr G. Vassort (Montpellier, France). He has devoted his entire scientific career to the physiology and pathophysiology of the excitation-contraction coupling of skeletal and cardiac muscles. Over the past twenty years, he has contributed to demonstrating the involvement of RyR in several cardiac and muscular pathological situations such as heart failure, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, aging, diabetes, cardiac ischemia reperfusion. He identified the RyR as a potential pathophysiological target and proposed therapeutic interventions to prevent RyR dysfunction in these pathologies. Alain Lacampagne was an expert in the physiology studies section of the CNRS for 13 years, he has been appointed to the physiopathology studies section of Inserm and is currently a member of the board of directors of the French Society of Physiology.
The Physiological Society Michael de Burgh Daly Prize Lecture
Friday, 16 September 2022, 17:30
Merry L. Lindsey
Chair, Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology; Director, Center for Heart and Vascular Research
The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Research Health Scientist, Research Service, Omaha Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska
Dr. Lindsey is Chair of the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology and Founding Director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Research (CHVR) at UNMC. She completed her undergraduate degree at Boston University and was trained in cardiovascular sciences at Baylor College of Medicine for her graduate studies and Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital for her postdoctoral fellowship. She has >25 years’ experience with all aspects of inflammatory and fibrotic components of cardiac remodeling following myocardial infarction (MI). Since 2004, Dr. Lindsey has served as PI or co-PI on multiple funded projects totaling over $30M to date and has trained >60 trainees, who have combined been awarded over a dozen fellowships or career development grants and gone on to successful careers. Dr. Lindsey’s research has led to over 200 publications and is currently supported by the Veterans Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Lindsey serves as Editor in Chief for the American Journal of Physiology- Heart and Circulatory Physiology. She is actively involved in the American Physiological Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Society of Matrix Biology and has presented her research at over 150 national and international venues.
Saturday, 17 September 2022, 11:45
Bente Klarlund Pedersen
Centre for Physical Activity Research (CFAS), Rigshospitalet & University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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.
Friday, 16 September 2022, 12:30
Stefan Trapp
University College London, UK
Stefan Trapp is Professor of Autonomic Neuroscience and Metabolic Disease at University College London and heads the Centre for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Neuroscience. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Göttingen, Germany, he moved to the University of Oxford in the UK to work with Professor Frances Ashcroft. Subsequently, he established his own laboratory as Lecturer at Imperial College London and in 2013 moved to UCL where he founded together with Professor Alexander Gourine the Centre for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Neuroscience and was promoted to Full Professor. Stefan Trapp’s research focuses on the neuronal circuitry controlling energy balance with emphasis on the gut-brain axis and its hormones and neurotransmitters with the aim of developing new approaches to counteract obesity and metabolic disease. He is particularly recognised for his contributions to understanding the physiology of GLP-1 producing neurons in the brain over the past decade.
