2026 Kern Lipid Conference; Lipids and lipoproteins in Neurodegenerative and Cardiometabolic disease

About This Grant

SUMMARY Since its inception in 1985, the goals of the Kern Lipid Conference have been to promote lipid science and increase the understanding of diseases involving altered lipid metabolism. The conference strives to provide an open forum for established and young emerging scientists from academia and industry. To this end, the 2026 Kern Lipid Conference will be co-chaired by Drs. Kimberley D. Bruce, Clair Crewe, Robert H Eckel, and Philipp Scherer, representing a range of scientific expertise and career stages. In 2026, the Kern Lipid Conference will be held at the Viceroy Hotel in Snowmass, Colorado (August 10-12th, 2026) with a new timely theme, “Lipids and Lipoproteins in Cardiometabolic and Neurodegenerative Disease”, which responds to the emerging role of lipids and lipoprotein metabolism in age-associated neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Since this meeting is attended by world leaders in metabolism, this conference is the ideal opportunity to bring peripheral metabolic scientists and neuroscientists together. Therefore, the primary goals of the 2026 conference are (1) to provide an interactive environment that leads to novel insights into the shared mechanisms driving age-associated cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease involving lipids and lipoproteins (2) to engage and inspire young scientists from a range of scientific disciplines to develop their careers studying lipid and lipoprotein biology, cardiometabolic, and neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis. There are 8 scientific sessions in the 2026 scientific program, covering the following topics: (1) Peripheral Lipids and Neurodegenerative Disease (2) Causative Factors in Hyperlipidemia, (3) Lipoproteins in Cardiometabolic and Neurodegenerative disease, (4) Lipid Signaling, (5) Lipids as Immunometabolic Regulators (6), Emerging Technologies in Lipid analysis and Imaging (7) ApoE and Apolipoproteins, and (8) Lipid Droplets and Lipophagy. Idea exchange is maximized by allocating ample time for questions and discussion after oral presentations, shared meals, an evening poster session, and career development roundtables. The Kern Conference has traditionally attracted many early career scientists (~40% of the participants), established scholars in their fields, as well as creative scientists from the industry. Participation of young scientists is strongly promoted with opportunities to present, serve as session chairs, and receive prestigious early-career awards that will facilitate career development: the Roger Davis Investigator Award for Transitional Faculty, the David L Williams Lecture Award, and the Franz Simon Poster Award. Overall, the tranquil setting and meeting format will facilitate interdisciplinary interactions, making it likely that novel insights into disease mechanisms and therapeutic approaches for cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases will emerge from the 2026 Conference. This R13 application is critical to the success of the 2026 Kern Conference because it will enable us to support the attendance and highlight research from more early career scientists.