Plenary speakers
Dr. Simón Barquera
Director, Nutrition and Health Research Center, National Institute of Public Health, Mexico
President-Elect, World Obesity Federation
Simón is an MD with MS and PhD degrees in Nutrition Epidemiology. As of May 2017, he is the Director of the Nutrition and Health Research Center in Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, where he also leads the Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease research line (since 2015). He is co-investigator of the Mexican Health and Nutrition Surveys (1999-2020), Member of the Ministry of Health Chronic Diseases advisory board, the PAHO Expert Group on sodium reduction, co-chair of the World Obesity Federation Policy and Prevention Committee, and fellow of the Obesity Society.
Simón has been recognised as a National Investigator by the Mexican Council of Science and Technology and is a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He has received the PAHO Fred L Soper award for excellence in health literature (2003), the Tufts University Nutrition Impact Award (2016), the UAM Distinguished Alumni Award (2016), and the Michael & Susan Dell Lectureship in Child Health granted by the University of Texas- Austin (2017), the 7th Alvan R Feinstein Chair (UASLP, 2018), the 18th Carl J Martinson Lectureship (University of Minnesota, 2018), the Research Merit Recognition (CCyTEM Morelos, Mexico 2020), and the National Merit Award “Dr. Gerardo Varela” in Public Health (General Health Council, Mexico, 2020).
Prof. Karine Clément
Professor of Nutrition, INSERM/Sorbonne Universite Research Unit, France
Karine Clément (MD, PhD) is medical doctor, full professor of Nutrition at Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and Sorbonne University in Paris. Since 2002, her research unit at INSERM works on the pathophysiology of obesity and related disorders particularly focusing on interorgan cross-talks (www.nutriomique.org, @ClementLab).
From 2011-2016, she created and was the director of the Institute of CardiometAbolisme and Nutrition (ICAN). KC has been first involved in genetics of obesity and contributed to the identification of monogenic forms of obesity, a field where new medical treatments are now available to patients. Her group is also exploring the link between environmental changes (as changes in lifestyle and nutrition), gut microbiota, immune system and tissue functional modifications (adipose tissue fibrosis and inflammation). KC and her group contributed to more than 400 highly cited publications.
KC received several national and international prizes and contributes to several science advisory boards and international consortia. Amongst them FP7-METACARDIS is a EU project dedicated to the study of gut microbiota in Cardiometabolic diseases and KC was coordinator of Metacardis for 6 years. KC is a member of several international groups and association (such as WOF, EASO, EASD, AFERO as vice president) and received several national and international prizes (such Irene Jolliot-Curie, Gallien, Fondation de France (Valade) and Jacoebaus prizes).
Prof. Silvia Corvera
Professor and Endowed Chair, Diabetes Research, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, United States
Silvia Corvera, MD, is the Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and a Professor in the Program in Molecular Medicine. Her laboratory focuses on human adipose tissue development and its relationship to systemic metabolism and type 2 diabetes. In particular, her focus is on identifying the full complement of diverse human adipocyte subtypes, their developmental mechanisms, and their physiological roles. Her lab has pioneered the use of species-hybrid models to study the development of adipose tissues from multipotent mesenchymal progenitor cells residing in different human adipose depots.
In addition to her research activities, Dr. Corvera is dedicated to efforts towards developing a strong biomedical workforce. She was director of the UMASS MD/PhD program, which was funded through a Medical Scientist Training Program by the National Institutes of Health from 2017 to 2022. She developed and directed the Clinical Translational Research pathway for the School of Medicine, which provides longitudinal research training opportunities to medical students. She was elected to the AAMC-GREAT group MD/PhD Steering Committee in 2020.
Dr. Corvera serves on multiple national advisory committees. She currently serves as a member of the National Institutes of Health Endocrinology/BMDM Study Section, and as a member of the National Advisory Committee for the PEW Latin American Fellows Program. She served as the Chair of the Mentor Advisory Group for the new “Pathway to Stop Diabetes” of the American Diabetes Association from 2017 to 2019, and as a member of the Research Policy Committee from 2017 to 2021. She served on the Chartered NIH-NIDDK, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases B Subcommittee from 2014 to 2018. She has served on the editorial boards of Diabetes (2003-2005) the Journal of Biological Chemistry (2000-2003), and FASEB Journal (current).
Prof. Jacob George
Robert W. Storr Chair of Hepatic Medicine, Sydney Medical School, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Australia
Professor Jacob George is the Robert W. Storr Professor of Hepatic Medicine at the Storr Liver Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Westmead Hospital and Director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Services for the Western Sydney Local Health District.
He undertakes basic and clinical research on MAFLD, hepatitis C, liver cancer and hepatic fibrosis. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology, and is on the Editorial Board of Hepatology, Hepatology Communications, Liver International, and the World Journal of Gastroenterology. Jacob is on the executive of the International Association for the Study of Liver (IASL) and is the Chair of the Liver Faculty of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia.
He is a founding member on the Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Council to the AASLD, Global Outreach and Engagement Committee. He has published >515 papers, has >46,000 citations and an h index of 96.
Dr. Shingo Kajimura
HHMI Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Dr. Shingo Kajimura is a HHMI Investigator at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Dr. Kajimura received undergraduate degree in biology and biochemistry (2000), MSc, and Ph.D. (2006) from the University of Tokyo, and completed postdoctoral training in molecular metabolism at Harvard/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He became an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco in 2011 and has risen to the rank of Professor in 2019. In 2021, Dr. Kajimura joined the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at BIDMC/Harvard.
Dr. Kajimura made pioneering contributions to the molecular understandings of bioenergetics, with a special emphasis on brown fat and metabolic disease. Dr. Kajimura received several distinguished awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE Award) from the White House USA, Richard E. Weitzman Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from ENDO Society, and Pew Scholar.
Prof. Boyd Swinburn
ICO 2022 William Philip T James Award Winner
Professor, Population Nutrition and Global Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Honorary Professor, Global Centre (GLOBE), Deakin University, Australia
Boyd Swinburn is Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Honorary Professor, Global Centre (GLOBE), Deakin University, Australia.
Boyd trained as an endocrinologist and has conducted research in metabolic, clinical and public health aspects of obesity. His major research interests centre on community and policy actions to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity, and reduce, what he has coined, ‘obesogenic’ environments. He leads the INFORMAS initiative (www.informas.org) to monitor and benchmark food environments in over 60 countries.
He established WHO’s first Collaborating Centre on Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in 2003, led two Lancet Series on Obesity in 2011 and 2015, was co-chair of World Obesity Policy & Prevention section 2009-2019 and co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Obesity 2015-2019. He has been an advisor on many government committees, WHO Consultations, and large scientific studies internationally.