ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Metabolic Decisions in Development and
Disease, organized by Drs. Irene Miguel-Aliaga, Ralph J. DeBerardinis and A.J. Marian Walhout. The
conference will be part of Keystone Symposia’s eSymposia Conference Series, which are virtual events. The
dates for this online conference will be March 21-24, 2021.
Metabolism was once regarded as a homeostatic, housekeeping process that supported but did not instruct
cell signaling, gene expression and other networks. In recent years, it has become apparent that metabolism
is intimately intertwined with many other networks that determine cellular fate and tissue function, and that
metabolites can transmit signals within and between cells. The impact of metabolic signaling is illustrated by
the consequences of its dysregulation and it is now understood that many diseases involve pathologically
altered metabolism. Mutations in metabolic enzymes underlie numerous developmental disorders, and
metabolic alterations in malignant cells impair cellular differentiation and fuel tumor growth. These
observations have rekindled interest in disease-oriented metabolism research, which now benefits from
increasingly sophisticated analytical and computational tools to understand metabolism and to localize
important activities in space and time. The unifying theme of this conference is that proper development
requires exquisite metabolic control, and that perturbed metabolism can result in developmental diseases. The
conference will bring together scientists exploring how metabolites impact cellular and developmental
decisions in a diverse range of model systems, and mechanisms underlying developmental disorders caused
by aberrant metabolism. Topics will include the epigenetic roles of metabolites and their oncogenic potential,
signaling roles of metabolites across organs, metabolic control of development, and the impact of microbiota-
mediated signaling in ageing and metabolic disease. Collectively, participants attending this conference will
foster collaborations across a range of disciplines, provide biological questions for emerging technologies, and
ultimately develop a new conceptual framework for the study of the instructive roles of metabolites in biology
and disease. This novel conference program is designed to capitalize on both the technological and
conceptual momentum of this budding field.