Metabolic diseases such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and NASH remain major causes of death and disability. One reason is incomplete understanding of energy metabolism and its regulation. New data indicate that metabolites normally viewed as wastes or benign intermediates are actually important fuels and signals. For example, lactate has emerged as an important energy substrate and succinate as a driver of muscle remodeling, reflecting the many underexplored energetic and regulatory roles of circulating metabolic intermediates. The importance of such intermediates opens a new perspective on how energy metabolism is controlled, outside of classical “fuels” like glucose, amino acids and fat. Thus, this field is primed for further break-throughs – both in understanding of new biology and in offering new targets for intervention.

This Keystone Symposia conference will bring together the leading experts in the field to review the latest research and discuss challenges the field is facing. In addition, it will be held jointly with the conference on Mechanisms of Microbiota-Immune Interactions-Towards the Next Decade, to enhance our understanding of how microbial metabolites contribute to these process. The joint pairing will foster new scientific collaborations and the implementation of new technological approaches to understand the intersection of metabolic, microbial and immune interactions.