Next Wednesday, 6th November, the third talk in the series of conferences of the Faculty of Science and Tecnology HABLEMOS de CIENCIA y TECNOLOGÍA: Jornadas de Otoño 2024 will be given in collaboration with EHUGUNE.

Dr. George Brooks, from the University of Berkeley, will give the lecture “THE AMAZING STORY OF LACTATE: KEY TO UNDERSTANDING CELLULAR METABOLISM IN HEALTH AND DISEASE”.

The talk will be given at 12:00 in the Paraninfo of the Faculty and at the event the Director of Athletic Club's Performance Department will present him with a gift.

Summary of the talk

Lactate, traditionally considered a waste product due to muscle fatigue and anaerobic metabolism, actually has multiple important functions in human metabolism with important relevance to health and disease. Lactate, the end product of glycolysis, is a signalling molecule with important endocrine, paracrine and autocrine properties. Through exercise lactate is released and is an important signalling molecule for cellular homeostasis, neurogenesis, angiogenesis and multiple physiological events. It is also the preferred fuel for cells both at rest and during exercise. However, when lactate accumulates in a deregulated manner at the cellular level, it becomes a mediator of various pathological processes involved in cancer, type 2 diabetes or Alzheimer's disease.

Information about the Speaker

Dr George Brooks is the world's leading authority on lactate and lactate metabolism. He has spent 53 years at the University of California at Berkeley studying lactate and thanks to his disruptive research methods and discoveries, we now know a great deal about the role of lactate in health and disease. Dr Brooks' work has had and continues to have a major impact from the world of exercise physiology to diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.