The main focus of the TUM Exercise Biology Group is to identify molecular mechanisms of adaptation by which exercise training improves our fitness and health. We are particularly focussed on the so-called Hippo proteins as these proteins respond to exercise-associated stimuli and regulate adaptations including muscle hypertrophy.
This year, Prof Dr Henning Wackerhage and Dr Martin Schönfelder flew to China to present their unpublished data at the Hippo meeting 2018 in Xiamen from the 2-6 of November. This is a high profile meetings with many pioneers that have discovered major components of the Hippo Signaling system and linked them to stem cell function, organ growth or diseases such as cancer in publications in journals that include Nature and Cell. We were the only exercise biologists at this meeting and we think that many of our peers find the link of Hippo proteins to exercise-related problems highly interesting. Specifically, we have presented unpublished data on Vgll3 which is a Hippo-related factor that is switched on when skeletal muscles hypertrophy and on how a reduction of oxygen (hypoxia) regulates Hippo proteins. The hypoxia regulation of Hippo proteins is relevant not only for many diseases but also for high intensity exercise and it contributes to the adaptation to high altitude e.g. during a mountaineering expedition.
This meeting was not only good to catch up with our international colleagues but we also learned a lot on how to carry out our experiments, where to get materials and we could catch up with our collaborators e.g. at the NUS in Singapore.
Whilst there was a dawn-to-dusk lecture schedule, we still managed to exercise. There was a 25 m pool for quick lunchtime training sessions and we also ran on the waterfront together with several other colleagues. It seems that the Hippo field is full of exercisers! Overall a fantastic meeting that has inspired us to try even harder in our quest of discovering new phenomena of adaptation that depend on Hippo proteins.