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The Southeastern Regional Lipid Conference (SERLC) is an academic meeting in lipid biology research gathering senior and junior scientists from the southeastern region of the United States. The main themes are sphingolipids, phospholipids, and eicosanoids, their analysis by state of the art lipidomics, and the determination of their biological function in cell signaling and cell biology. Additional topics covered are the structural and functional analysis of unique sphingolipids and phospholipids in plants, fungi, bacteria, and infectious diseases. It is attended by about 150-200 participants. Two senior speakers from outside of the southeastern region give keynote talks SERLC website 2010SERLC website 2011.

Scientific topics and impact on public health

The southeastern region of the United States holds records in obesity, cancer, and stroke occurrences. Interestingly, the regions of the “obesity belt” (website obesity society), “cancer belt”, and stroke belt stretching over the southeast are highly overlapping and account for more than half of the occurrences of diseases in the US related to obesity, cancer, and stroke. It has become increasingly evident that lipid imbalances as occurring in obesity lead to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, two disease processes triggering chronic inflammation, which aggravates cardiovascular, cancerous, and neuropathological conditions. While lipid signaling factors may not be the immediate cause of a disease, they can worsen its course and outcome. Therefore it is necessary to understand the biological cell signaling function of inflammatory, tumor promoting, and apoptosis-inducing lipids.

Training of students and junior scientists

Session talks and poster presentations are exclusively given by students and post-docs. Abstracts will be selected to receive travel awards that cover the registration fee and travel costs for the awardees. Senior post-docs and young faculty are selected to chair the sessions. SERLC awardees are listed on many university websites. Coverage on SERLC and SERLC awardees can also be find on the website of the Biochemical Journal (see external links).

Representation of women and participants from minority groups

More than one third of the principal investigators have been women. In 2010, 31 out of 65 presenters were female students and post-docs. A particular number of travel awards is reserved for students and post-docs who are women or members of minority groups.

Networking with scientific societies and other conferences

SERLC networks with the Charleston Ceramide Conference (CCC,(website CCC 2011), the Gordon Research Conferences on glycolipids and sphingolipids(website Gordon conference 2010) and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology(ASBMB). At ASBMB, information on lipids and SERLC can be found in the "Lipid Corner" Lipid corner website and ASBMB conference announcement (see external links).