Based on the successes of previous NPY meetings and a renaissance of major advances in our understanding of neuropeptide Y and its receptors in biology and medicine, we were pleased to present the 13th International NPY-PYY-PP meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA July 15-18 2023.
As with the previous meetings, the program covered the broad spectrum of how this family of peptides controls neurobiological and psychological processes, pain, feeding behavior, gastrointestinal function, and other physiological systems. These themes were complemented and expanded with new insights from neural circuitry studies as well as structural analysis of Y-receptors. These recent research advances place the NPY receptors as promising targets for the development of new therapeutics for obesity, psychiatric and neurologic disorders, chronic pain, cancer, and other disease states.
The 2023 meeting attracted around 90 trainees, faculty members, and industry attendees from 13 countries and featured plenary lectures from internationally renowned leaders in the field and a Keynote Lecture by Professor Tomas Hökfelt from the Karolinska Institute, perhaps the most recognized pioneer and prolific publisher of NPY research (over 10% of his more than 1200 research and review articles). The scientific program included speakers selected from the submitted abstracts, as well as poster presentations. The relaxed atmosphere offered a terrific opportunity for young investigators to meet one-on-one with the leaders in the field.
As with previous NPY meetings, we will also publish an accompanying special issue of reviews, original articles, and abstracts from the meeting in the journal Neuropeptides. This special issue will be dedicated to examination of the most recent and compelling advances in NPY-PYY-PP research, and is meant to inspire additional research on the functional contributions of this important family of neuropeptides in human physiology and disease.
Registration included a welcome reception on July 15th, coffee/tea breaks, lunch on July 16th, poster viewing every day, a presentation award celebration for trainees, and the gala meeting dinner on July 18th at the world-famous Andy Warhol Museum.
Mid July was a great time to enjoy the beauties of Western Pennsylvania, making this not only a stimulating scientific meeting but also a pleasurable one. The meeting venue was within the beautiful Posvar Hall on the University of Pittsburgh campus, two blocks from major attractions such as our arboretum and Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. It was also a great time of year to visit the world-famous architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright at Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob.
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)