A major goal of the new Chair of Exercise Biology (Prof Henning Wackerhage, Dr. Martin Schönfelder) is to answer original and important research questions in relation to molecular mechanisms of adaptation in relation to performance and health. To achieve this we will collaborate with various international research groups. This strategy is generously supported by the Technical University of Munich through providing funds for hosting an annual meeting at the TUM Science and Study Center Raitenhaslach, a former monastery near the river Salzach in the southeast of Bavaria.
On the 4-5th of November 2016, we organized the first meeting on “Muscle, Hippo & Metabolism” where we brought together researchers from the TU Munich, Helmholtz Institutions, King’s College London, the University of Aberdeen and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam covering everything from the history of science, exercise biology, signal transduction, stem cell biology, cancer biology to large-scale genomic and metabolomics studies. The talks were focused on skeletal muscle, the major exercise organ, and especially the growth of muscle during development and in response to mechanical loading especially through exercise. Here, the so-called Hippo signal transduction network is potentially a major player as it is a key regulator of muscle development and responds to multiple exercise adaptation-triggering signals. Active Hippo proteins then regulate growth through muscle stem cell proliferation and muscle fibre hypertrophy. Additionally, the pathological hyperactivity of Hippo genes can trigger a muscle-related cancer termed rhabdomyosarcoma. In relation to this we noted a potentially crucial role for whole metabolism which could potentially explain key muscle related phenomena from strength training to links between the loss of muscle mass during normal ageing and changes in metabolism.
During our meeting most of the participants gave a 30 min talk either reporting on data or on methods related to this field of research and we used the rest of the time to discuss our ideas and to plan our projects. From our perspective the size of the group, length of the talks and the venue worked very well. Raitenhaslach is the perfect scientific meeting place and our planning was made easy by the superb Raitenhaslach team led by Mrs Weiant.
Speakers:
- Dr. Angela Otto: Zentralinstitut für Medizintechnik IMETUM
- Dr. Richard Jaspers: Vrije Universit Amsterdam
- Prof. Dr. Pete Zammit: King´s Colledge London
- Dr. Gabi Kastenmüller: Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology IBIS at Helmholtz Centre Munich
- Dr. Bettina Schmid: German Centre of Neurodegenerative Deseases (DZNE)at Helmholtz Centre Munich
- Dr. Lore Becker: German Mouse Clinic
- Dr. Mohamed Abdalla: University of Aberdeen
- Dr. Sebastian Gehlert: German Sport University of Cologne
- Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schlegel: Institute of Pathology/Neuropathology at TU of Munich
- Prof. Dr. Henning Wackerhage and Dr. Martin Schönfelder: both Exercise Biology at TU of Munich