Make Your Top 10 List for Las Vegas ObesityWeek Now

Get ready for sensory overload. We’re heading to Las Vegas where roughly 5,000 scientists and professionals will focus on obesity next week, all week. It’s overwhelming. So your best bet is to make your top-ten list now. Because once you get to Vegas, you better have a plan.

Here’s our top ten to give you a head start.

1. Childhood Obesity

For decades now, we’ve been talking about obesity in children. But despite all that talk, rates have climbed relentlessly. Now we see some things changing, though. At the opening session for TOS, Michelle Cardel, Ania Jastreboff, and Hiba Jibile will present and discuss. We expect a lively discussion of science and competing agendas for meeting the needs of children and youth for better care. ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle will moderate.

But that’s not all. Not by a long shot. For most of the day on Thursday, experts from around the world will present a global perspective on pediatric obesity treatment. If you want to know where this is headed, you won’t want miss it.

2. A Policy Focus

If policy is your thing, you won’t be disappointed. Two tracks at the meeting are devoted to the subject. A special highlight will be key lecturer Sara Bleich. She’ll bring a unique perspective on moving from an academic center to the White House and back again. Having seen how the pickles are made, we expect she will deliver a fascinating lecture.

However that’s just one of at least 16 hot sessions in the Population Health and Policy tracks. For more, just open up the ObesityWeek app and browse through those two tracks.

3. Late Breaking Research Forum

On Monday at 11am, we will get a peek at some of the hottest new developments in obesity pharmacotherapy. This forum on emerging pharmacotherapy promises to give us insights from phase three trials of a MC4R agonist for rare and severe forms of childhood obesity. We’ll also get an early look at data on bimagrumab, another emerging drug for obesity. An expert panel will bring further perspective.

4. Why Have We Failed to Decrease Obesity and Diabetes?

In this TOS Keynote, you can be sure that Barbara Corkey will give us a lot to think about. Her seminal work on nutrient signaling arms her with unique perspective. What’s more, she’s not shy about sharing it. We will surely hear some bold ideas that will challenge us all. Don’t miss it.

5. TOS-ASMBS Keynote: William Cefalu

If it’s about diabetes and metabolism, Cefalu has his finger on the pulse. The title of his keynote lecture is at this moment TBD. So we expect that he will offer the very latest from his perch as director at NIH for diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic diseases. It comes as a joint ASMBS-TOS opening keynote on Tuesday morning.

6. Fit to Fight?

Two brilliant researchers, Diana Thomas and Marian Tanofsky-Kraff, will bring a current and objective examination of how obesity is affecting military readiness. They will also be looking at the impact on military families. Are we prepared for the country’s defense in a time of growing obesity rates? Come to this key lecture and find out.

7. Intergenerational Obesity Transmission

In this TOS President’s Symposium, four top researchers will address a tough question. Does the transmission of obesity from one generation to the next mean that we’re stuck with it? Exactly how does this work and how can we interrupt the cycle? These and other questions will make for a fascinating session.

8. How Are We Doing on Soda Consumption?

Soda taxes are a hot topic around the world. Harvard’s Jason Block tells us to expect an exploration of strategies for judging the effectiveness of such policies at his session on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, we’ll have a much broader session on fiscal policies for nutrition and the food environment. Maybe some new data and insights, too.

9. Beta Cells and Best Outcomes

ASMBS and TOS are joining forces for a symposium on the best science for interventions to bring remissions from type 2 diabetes. Surgery, medications, and the biology of beta cells are all part of the story.

10. Feast on Vegas

If you’re going to be in Las Vegas, it can’t be all work and no play 24 hours a day. So get your rest and a little bit of relaxation, too. We suggest checking out Lonely Planet’s list of top things to do in Vegas. Our pick? The Neon Boneyard. It just feels right.

To see all that ObesityWeek has to offer, download the app or browse the interactive schedule.

Las Vegas Sensory Overload, photograph © Wayne S. Grazio / flickr

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October 31, 2019