Journal of Neuroscience Research 93:985–986 (2015)

Preface The 11th International Conference on Brain Energy Metabolism “How Energy Metabolism Shapes Brain Function” Helle Waagepetersen,1 Arne Schousboe,1 and Mary C. McKenna2* 1

Department of Drug Design & Pharmacotherapy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark 2 Department of Pediatrics and Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA21201

The 11th International Conference on Brain Energy Metabolism “How Energy Metabolism Shapes Brain Function” was held in Helsinge, Denmark, on May 11– 14, 2014. The conference was hosted by Helle Waagepetersen in the scenic Bymose Hegn Conference Center in the picturesque town of Helsinge, Denmark, about 50 kilometers north of Copenhagen. Previous meetings in this highly successful series of International Conferences on Brain Energy Metabolism were also held in beautiful surroundings, the first in Carcassonne, France in 1993, followed by Blaubeuren, Germany, 1995, Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, USA, 1997, Oxford, UK, 1999, Trondheim, Norway, 2001, Heraklion, Crete, 2004, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2006, Beijing, China, 2008, Budapest, Hungary, 2010, and Monterey, California, USA in 2012. The conference was attended by 99 students, postdocs and investigators from 12 countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Travel awards were provided from conference funds from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) and the European Society for Neurochemistry (ESN) for 14 graduate students and postdoctoral fellow from 10 countries. The travel awardees were from Chile, France, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Brazil, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom and the USA. The conference began on May 11 with a lunch followed by an opening session on “Interrelationships between transport and metabolism” that featured interesting talks on mitochondrial dynamics, mobility and complexes. The opening session was followed by an riveting keynote address by Maiken Nedergaard on “A cerebral lymphatic system – potential effects on energy metabolism” presenting her recent work on the brain glymphatic system as well as some interesting new findings concerning the relative distribution of hexokinase in neurons and astrocytes, results that show a significant metabolism of glucose in neurons. Dr. Nedergaard’s talk generated considerable discussion that continued throughout the meeting. C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. V

Conference attendees enjoyed the scientific sessions as well as the ambiance of the conference center that allowed participants to meet informally, discuss research ideas and challenge others to a game of pool. On Tuesday evening the participants enjoyed a closing dinner of delicious Danish cuisine at the conference center. The sessions, which covered a wide range of topics, included 31 long talks four of which were presented by young travel awardees. Many noted investigators in the fields of brain energy metabolism and neurodegeneration chaired the scientific sessions. The formal sessions focused on membrane transport related to energy metabolism, oligodendrocyte metabolism and function, the role of glucose, lactate and glycogen as energy substrates in health and pathology, and the role of the redox state in relation to signaling. The first full day started off with an exciting session on oligodendrocytes: the new kid on the block which included talks ranging from clinically relevant imaging after injury to myelin-axon interactions and acetate and N-acetylaspartate metabolism. In her talk on [1,6-13C]glucose metabolism in immature and differentiated oligodendrocytes, Ana Amaral reported that upon differentiation the cultured oligodendrocytes change from a low energy production state to higher rates of both aerobic glycolysis and mitochondrial oxidation, which may play a role in the myelinating capacity, axonal trophic support, and CNS remyelination. The session on interrelationship between ion homeostasis, transport and metabolism provided novel information on pH regulation in neurons by the sodium/ *Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Mary C. McKenna, Ph.D.Department of Pediatrics University of Maryland School of Medicine 655 W. Baltimore St., Room 13–019, Baltimore, MD, 21201 USA [email protected] Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary. com). DOI: 10.1002/jnr.23603

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hydrogen exchanger NHE1, system N transport of glutamine in astrocytes, and Energy metabolism and K1homeostasis during fast neuronal network oscillations. The session on the importance of branched chain amino acids in brain function was a timely update on the roles and physiology of BCAA in normal and injured brain. Other sessions included interesting new findings related to the topics of glycogen and lactate, more than substrates and the regulatory link between redox state and metabolism. The session on the role of glucose in neural pathology included a thought-provoking talk by Joan Guinovart on studies with cultured neurons that neuronal glycogen metabolism participates in the tolerance to hypoxia. The session on signaling and metabolism focused on role of energetics in protecting brain from injury. The final session on energy metabolism in healthy and unhealthy aging underscored the importance of normal cerebral blood flow and brain metabolism for memory formation and protection from excitotoxicity. This meeting carried on the tradition of earlier brain energy conferences by including time for discussion after each speaker and lots of interactive discussion during the breaks. An exciting new feature of this conference was the introduction of 2 hour small Group Discussion sessions on Monday night led by Mary McKenna, Linda Bergersen, Bruce Ransom and Felipe Barros. These sessions were highly interactive discussions focused on topics proposed by the conference attendees. Topics included glucose versus lactate, glutamate metabolism, aging and neurodegeneration and mitochondrial function. In addition, 10 young scientists (5 travel awardees and 5 non-awardees) were selected to give short oral presentations (8 min talks 1 7 min question period) in the Junior Investigator’s session on Tuesday afternoon based on the quality of their abstracts and posters. These investigators also presented posters to allow more interaction with conference participants. The program committee was very impressed by the quality of the student and postdoc abstracts, which made the selection process for the oral presentations and travel awards highly competitive. The junior investigators presented a broad range of topics including regulation of acetate metabolism, role of oligodendroglial NMDA receptors in regulating axonal energy metabolism, altered metabolic function of astrocytes in the aging brain, imaging the postnatal co-development of neural, metabolic, and hemodynamic activity, failure in energy metabolism and antioxidant uptake in Huntington’s disease, metabolism in the rat cortex during sustained electrical paw stimulation, glial-neuronal lactate gradient in vivo, hexokinase II-mediated regulation of autophagy and role in neurodegeneration, and characteri-

zation of a putative monocarboxylic acid transporter (MCT) in Drosophila melanogaster. The junior investigator presentations were first-rate and were highly-regarded by conferees. A prize was given to Mariel Kozberg from Columbia University for the best presentation in this session. The 45 posters were presented at a poster sessions and all of the posters were on display for the entire meeting, which enabled interactive discussions among conferees throughout the meeting. We thank the members of the program committee Helle Waagepetersen (Chair, Copenhagen, Denmark), Mary C. McKenna (Baltimore, MD, USA), Jeffrey Cole (Bethesda, MD, USA), Felipe Barros (Valdivia, Chile), Michael Robinson (Philadelphia, PA, USA), Ian Simpson (Hershey, PA, USA), Linda Bergersen (Oslo, Norway), Lester Drewes (Minneapolis, MN, USA), Silvia Mangia (Minneapolis, MN, USA), Kevin Behar (New Haven, CT, USA), Gerald Dienel (Little Rock, AR, USA), Ursula Sonnewald (Trondheim, Norway), Avtar Roopra (Madison, WI, USA), and Bruce Ransom (Seattle, WA, USA) and Raymond Swanson, San Francisco, USA for putting together an outstanding program. We also thank the members of the local organizing committee Helle Waagepetersen (Copenhagen, Denmark), Martin Lauritzen, Lasse K. Bak, Arne Schousboe and Caroline Voss for their enthusiasm, excellent organization, and their spirit of warmth and hospitality that made all the attendees feel welcome at the beautiful meeting venue. We would like to express our thanks for financial support from the US PHS (NIH grant 1R13 NS08785201) from National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) Conference Committee, and Carlsberg Fondet, Denmark; Seahorse Bioscience, USA; Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc., and Wiley-Blackwell, USA without which this conference would not have been possible. This special issue edited by Mary McKenna, Arne Schousboe, and Helle Waagepetersen contains sixteen peer-reviewed manuscripts from invited speakers who participated in this conference. All of the participants are looking forward to the 12th International Conference on Brain Energy Metabolism organized by Albert C.H. Yu that will be held May 25th-28th, 2016 in the vibrant city of Hong Kong, China (add URL for Hong Kong meeting website). We hope to see everyone there for another highly stimulating and interactive meeting. Helle S. Waagepetersen Mary C. McKenna Arne Schousboe

Journal of Neuroscience Research

The 11th International Conference on Brain Energy Metabolism "how energy metabolism shapes brain function". Preface.

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