The meeting covered the latest biological, technological, and theoretical advances in research on structure and function of the NPY family of peptides and their receptors. The goals of this conference were to build interpersonal connections and share research findings to accelerate the promise of NPY receptors as pharmacotherapeutic targets for obesity and metabolic diseases, stress, anxiety, substance misuse, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and cancer. The 2023 meeting attracted around 90 trainees, faculty members, and industry attendees from 13 countries. The meeting included a Keynote Lecture by Tomas Hokfelt, a dozen plenary lectures, dozens of other presentations from internationally renowned leaders in the field, and short presentations selected from abstracts submitted by trainees, and posters. Registration included a welcome reception, coffee/tea breaks, buffet lunch, poster viewing with refreshments, trainee awards, and a gala dinner. An accompanying special issue in the journal Neuropeptides will include reviews, original articles, and abstracts from the meeting.

Themes and Featured Speakers included:

• Gastrointestinal Function and PYY: Eugene Chang (University of Chicago)
• Neurobiology: J. Nicholas Betley (University of Pennsylvania)
• Pain: Tyler Nelson (New York University
• Aging: Claudia Cavadas (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
• Psychiatry: Lynn Dobrunz (U. Alabama, Birmingham)
• Substance Use Disorders: Todd Thiele (University of North Carolina)
• Evolution: Leonid Moroz (University of Florida)
• Obesity and Metabolism: Xu Cao (Johns Hopkins University)
• Obesity and Metabolism: Herbert Herzog (Garvan Institute, Sydney, Australia)
• Receptor Structure: Beili Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai)
• Receptor Signaling: Annette Beck-Sickinger (Leipzig University, Germany)
• Therapeutics: Dan Briere (Lilly Research Laboratories)
• Oncology: Gustavo Ayala (University of Texas HSC, Houston
• Keynote Lecture: Tomas Hokfelt (Karolinska Institute)

Our Sponsors

The journal Neuropeptides, the University of Pittsburgh Departments of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Neurobiology, and Neuroscience, the Pittsburgh Center for Pain Research, Nikon Instruments, and Advanced targeting Systems generously provided Travel Awards, Young Investigator Awards, and/or Best Oral and Poster Presentation Trainee Awards.