Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Functional Neurocircuitry of Feeding and Feeding Behavior, organized by Drs. Roger D. Cone, Lori M. Zeltser and Matthew R. Hayes. The conference will be held in Banff, Canada from February 10-14, 2019. The Keystone Symposia conference on neuronal control of appetite is a well-attended conference that is the leading gathering for scientific exchange among those studying the central control of energy homeostasis. The monogenetic syndromes of obesity in mouse and man played a fundamental role in the development of this field, and hence the field has heavily emphasized the control of feeding in models of obesity. However, many disorders of feeding and energy storage, including anorexia nervosa, disease cachexia, pediatric failure to thrive, Prader-Willi disease and progeria are important untreated medical conditions. The goal of this conference will be to gather world leaders in the neural control of feeding and energy homeostasis, along with leaders in the pathophysiology of feeding and energy homeostasis. There is currently no conference in the field that brings together these disparate groups of scientists. For example, recent annual conferences of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior had few talks on anorexia or cachexia. The 2017 Keystone Symposia conference on Neural Control of Appetite began to expand the biological breadth of feeding behaviors under investigation, and this proposed conference will further broaden this field by covering fundamental advances in the neural circuitry underlying feeding, while including entire sessions devoted to anorexia nervosa, disease cachexia, and feeding disorders across the lifespan. Additionally, while the Keystone conference on Obesity and Adipose Tissue Biology has been heavily focused on the hypothalamic control of homeostatic feeding, this conference will have entire sessions devoted to brainstem and telencephalic control of feeding.
This Keystone Symposia conference series on Obesity has been the leading venue for the gathering of scientists focused on the central control of energy homeostasis. As such, this conference has played a critical role in advancing the field during a time in which fundamental advances in the molecular basis of energy homeostasis have taken place, including the discovery of the leptin and melanocortin signaling. As the pre- eminent conference on the molecular basis of energy homeostasis, this proposed conference will continue to play a fundamental role in the advancement of both the basic science and therapeutic treatment of disorders of energy homeostasis.
