Center Members Presented at the 2012 Experimental Biology (EB) Annual Meeting Held in San Diego, CA, on April 21-25

The Experimental Biology (EB), held by six sponsoring societies (the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), the American Physiological Society (APS), the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET)) and another 20 U.S. and international guest societies, is a multi-society, interdisciplinary annual meeting featuring the newest scientific concepts and research findings brought by scientists from thought the world. ASN has several sections interested in obesity-related research. Center members may consider submit related future research findings to the 2013 EB.

Dr. Youfa Wang, Director of the Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity (JHGCCO), chaired a key symposium at EB 2012, titled “Controversies regarding reported trends: has the obesity epidemic leveled off in the United States?” Dr. Wang also presented in the symposium: “Some different messages: the trends in different population groups in the U.S. and based on different type of data and analysis.” He talked about the contradicting findings in the literature, addressed the challenges in exploring the trends of obesity in the U.S. and suggested research gaps and directions for future studies. Other presenters in the session included Dr. William H. Dietz (Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at CDC), Dr. Jennifer L. Baker (Senior Research Associate at Copenhagen University Hospital), and Dr. James O. Hill (Director of the University of Colorado Center for Human Nutrition; Director of the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC))

EB 2012 featured plenary and award lectures and oral sessions. Dr. Hong Xue, a member of U54 Project 3 and Education and Training Core (ETC) trainee, orally presented two studies titled “Different analysis methods reveal different effect of national school lunch program on childhood obesity in the US (co-authored: Youfa Wang),” and “System Dynamic Model Simulated Consumer and Supplier Responses to Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Taxes (co-authored: Hsin-jen Chen, Benjamin F. Hobbs, Tak Igusa, Youfa Wang)”. His presentations addressed the important methodological issues in obesity research and generated broad interest among audience.