Emerging new concepts and approaches to target the diabetes pandemic in urban areas: from physiology to successful implementation
A scientific symposium supported by the 4EU+ inter-university alliance took place at the Karolinum in Prague on 15-17 June 2023 entitled Emerging new concepts and approaches to tackle the diabetes pandemic in urban areas: from Physiology to successful implementation.
The symposium was organized on the platform of the 4EU+ Alliance by partner universities in Prague, Paris, Copenhagen, and Milan.
The symposium focused on the presentation of research lines for the implementation of basic and applied research results in the field of metabolism and public health into practice and networking support for the Early career researchers. The symposium featured presentations from leading invited experts researching
The event was held under the auspices of the Rector of Charles University, who personally attended the opening ceremony and welcomed the participants. Jan Gojda, representative of the host university and main organiser of the symposium, introduced Prague and its alchemical past in relation to the symposium content.
In the session 'Successful Implementation in the Real World' the following speakers were introduced. Prof Wendy Russel, University of Aberdeen, presenting Nature-Based Food Solutions for Human Health, looking at how farmers and the consumer chain work together to influence human health and environmental sustainability. Dr Michaela James, Swansea University, presented Giving Young People A Voice through Research: The Wants and Needs of Young People from Physical Activity, a comprehensive community-based project focusing on physical activity intervention programs for adolescents. Dr. Esmée Bijnens from Hasselt University presented Human health benefits associated with green space exposure, summarising the effects of green spaces and being outdoors on human health.
Invited speechesInvited speakers in the Treatment: Lifestyle Interventions section included Prof Patrick Schrauwen from Maastricht: Stimulating energy metabolism to combat type 2 diabetes; insights from human translational interventions. He summarised decades of his own research into energy metabolism and how it can be modulated in the real world to treat obesity and diabetes. The second speaker was Dr Ramona de Amicis from the University of Milan, who introduced the concept of chrononutrition and how it can be used in the prevention and treatment of diabetes in her presentation Chronotype, nutrition, nutritional status and eating behavior.
The last session 'Diagnostics and prediction in the era of precision medicine: omics/genetics, microbiome and epidemiology' was chaired by Assoc. Monika Cahová from IKEM, who presented 'There and Back Again: The Story of Civilization Through the Lens of the Microbiome", introduced the concept of microbial friends and how they can be used in prevention and treatment. The second speaker was Dr. Ben Stocks from the University of Copenhagen, who summarised his approaches and applications in diabetes research in his talk 'Proteomics basics and applications'.
However, the focus of the symposium was not on invited lectures, but on the active participation of postgraduate students. All of them presented abstracts of their own results or approaches to their own projects. Based on their expertise, they then worked in groups and under the guidance of mentors from the organizing team and invited speakers to develop new collaborative projects. These projects were presented and subjected to peer review at the end of the symposium.
Throughout the event, there was a creative and friendly atmosphere, which contributed to making the event a memorable experience for many participants.
Many thanks to the supporters of the symposium: the 4EU+ Alliance, the Czech Diabetes Society, the Czech Microbiome Society, the Trimed Society of the 3rd Medical Faculty and Charles University.
Jan Gojda, Assoc. Prof., MD, Ph.D., Third Medical Faculty of Charles University
Third Faculty of Medicine
Charles University
Ruská 87, 100 00 Prague 10
Czech Republic
Phone.: +420 267 102 111
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