The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) is now accepting applications for its Investigative Workshop: Mathematical Models of Metabolism and Body Weight Regulation to be held July 12-15, 2011, at NIMBioS.
*Objectives:* The mechanisms regulating human body weight are extraordinarily complex, and the ongoing obesity epidemic makes it imperative that we improve our understanding of these processes. In the engineering and physical sciences, there is a long history of using mathematical models and computer simulations to better understand the behavior of complex systems. This approach is now becoming more widely used in the biological and clinical sciences and a small but important field is emerging that uses mathematical and computational methods to address key questions about human metabolism and body weight regulation. This work is highly interdisciplinary and researchers entering this field are posed with communication challenges arising from the disparate backgrounds of researchers in mathematical and medical sciences. While this challenge is typical of truly interdisciplinary research, a second unique challenge arises from the intense media coverage of obesity and weight loss that often misinforms as much as it educates. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in the fields of obesity and metabolism with investigators expert in mathematical and computational modeling to facilitate communication and collaboration between these researchers. The workshop will provide background on the physiology of human body weight regulation, highlight some of the recent progress applying such methods to modeling human metabolism, food intake, and body composition, and pose open mathematical modeling problems originating from metabolism and body weight regulation research. We believe that it will act as a catalyst for future research on this important topic. *Organizers:* Kevin D. Hall (NIDDK, National Institutes of Health); Steven B. Heymsfield (Global Director, Scientific Affairs, Obesity, Merck & Co., Inc.); Diana M. Thomas (Assoc. Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Montclair State University) *Location:* NIMBioS at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville For more information about the tutorial and a link to the online application form, go to http://www.nimbios.org/workshops/WS_metabolism <http://www.nimbios.org/workshops/WS_tumor_modeling.html> *Application deadline:* March 14, 2011 The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) brings together researchers from around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to investigate solutions to basic and applied problems in the life sciences. NIMBioS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. -- Catherine Crawley, Ph.D. Communications Coordinator National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) University of Tennessee 1534 White Avenue Knoxville, TN 37996-1527 Phone: (865) 974-9350 Fax: (865) 974-9461 Email: [email protected] http://www.nimbios.org http://twitter.com/nimbios To receive email notifications of blog updates, click here. <http://www.nimbios.org/wordpress/subscribe2updates/> To sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter, click here. <http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001RgvbKVLa7a4Psoj8H7c43A%3D%3D>
