Experimental Biology 2011- Day 3

Day 3- Monday!

Today was a great day for Comparative Physiology!!

I highly enjoyed both symposia offered by the Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society.

-The first was entitled: "Elucidating Nature's Solutions to Human Diseases." In this symposium, Dr. Barbara Horwitz, University of California at Davis, discussed how hibernating animals protect their nervous system.

-The second talk was given by Dr. Sandy L. Martin, University of Colorado School of Medicine. Her talk was titled: "Biomarkers for the two phase switches of hibernation."

If only humans could hibernate like they do on the SyFy channel...

As mentioned in my previous entry, the second symposium was on energy metabolism and what fuels animals use to meet their energetic needs and featured many leading experts in this area of comparative physiology:
-Dr. Estela Arrese, Oklahama State University, "Insect body fat: energy, metabolism, and regulation"
-Dr. Frank Seebacher, University of Sydney, "The use of metabolic substrates by heterothermic vertebrates"
-Dr. Eldon Braun, University of Arizona, "Metabolic substrate use by birds: How do birds use glucose"
-Dr. Wayne Willis, Arizona State University, "Metabolic substrate use in mammals: Cost-benefit trade-offs"

This was also an excellent symposium on how various animals use fats and sugars to fuel their normal physiological processes.

The Experimental Biology meetings are huge. There are many societies that participate in the meeting and many of the societies have multiple sections representing various expert groups. This is true of the American Physiological Society. If you haven't guessed by now, I belong to the Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology Section of the society. So I am really excited about tonight's Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology Section Dinner and Business meeting! This is always a crowd pleaser as it gives comparative physiologists a chance to get together as a group outside of the larger meeting. I am looking forward to finding out who won the various awards that the section gives out as well. It is always neat to see students being recognized for their achievements!