2025 Program

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Wednesday, November 5th, 2025

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm    Arrival and Registration

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm   Welcome Reception (Pisgah & Pilot)

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm   Dinner (Pisgah & Pilot)

7:45 pm – 8:00 pm      Welcome and Opening Remarks (Mitchell & Roan)

Jason Newton, Virginia Commonwealth University

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm     Keynote Presentation 

Sarah Spiegel, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University

Title: My journey with Sphingosine-1-Phosphate: from insipid lipid to a key lipid mediator

9:00 pm – 11:00 pm    Social Time and Preliminary Poster Viewing (Pisgah & Pilot)

Thursday, November 6th, 2025

8:00 am – 9:00 am   Breakfast (Pisgah & Pilot)

9:00 am – 10:15 am    Oral Session I (Mitchell & Roan) Lipids in Cancer and Inflammation

Session Chairs: Chris Green and Aaron Birchfield, Virginia Commonwealth University

9:00 am  SPTLC3 and Non-Canonical Sphingolipids in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Emerging Drivers of Tumor Progression and Metabolic Dysregulation. Maryam Jamil, PhD, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

9:15 am      Intracellular Complement Signaling Plays a Critical Role in S1P/S1PR1-mediated Inflammasome Activation and Tumor Metastasis. Salih Gencer, PhD. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina

9:30 am   Adipocyte Sphingosine Kinase 2 Regulates Susceptibility to Obesity and MASH-driven Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Yadu Vijayan, PhD, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

9:45 am   Exploring Macrophage Sphingosine Kinase 2 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Sumit Saha, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

10:00 am   Glycerol Channel Aquaporin-3 is Significantly Upregulated at the Corneas’ Wound Edge in Mice. Sam Melnyk, Department of Physiology, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University

10:15 am  Role of Beta-Glucosylceramidase in the Regulation of Multidrug Resistance Transporters and Chemoresistance. Karyme Garcia Lopez, School of Life Sciences and Sustainability, Virginia Commonwealth University

10:30 am – 10:30 am   Break

10:30 am – 11:30 am   Oral Session II (Mitchell & Roan) Lipids in Neurological Disorders

Session Chairs: Cynthia Weigel, Virginia Commonwealth University and Ally Brawner, Clemson University

10:30 am    Ceramide-rich Extracellular Vesicles as Biomarkers and Mediators of Neuronal Dysfunction After Traumatic Brain Injury. Zainuddin Quadri, PhD, Department of Physiology, University of Kentucky, Lexington

10:45 am  Dysregulated Fatty Acyl Chain Elongation May Drive Altered Sphingolipid Hydroxylation in Niemann-Pick Type C Disease. Shashank Nadimpalli, School of Life Sciences and Sustainability, Virginia Commonwealth University

11:00 am   Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 regulates competition-dependent astrocyte morphogenesis in the murine cortex.  Jean Patrick Gonzales, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

11:15 am  Beyond α-Synuclein: Membrane Remodeling and Disrupted Signaling in GBA-Associated Parkinson’s Disease.  Lauren Kupec, School of Life Sciences and Sustainability, Virginia Commonwealth University

11:30 am – 12:30 pm    Keynote Presentation 

Fred Maxfield, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine

Title: How macrophages digest objects too large to phagocytose: Relevance to lipoproteins and atherosclerosis

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm    Lunch (Pisgah & Pilot)

1:30 pm – 4:00 pm.    Free time

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm Poster Session (Pisgah & Pilot) and Cocktail Hour

Poster Session Chairs: Usha Mahawar and Jean Patrick Gonzales, Virginia Commonwealth University

6:00 pm – 6:15 pm    Awards ceremony (Mitchell & Roan)

6:15 pm – 6:30 pm    Presentation of the Lina Obeid Young Scientist Award 

6:30 pm – 7:00 pm    Lina Obeid Young Scientist Award Lecture  

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm.    SERLC Banquet- Pisgah & Pilot/ Mitchell & Roan

8:00 pm – 11:00 pm   Live Bluegrass Entertainment featuring the Asheville Mountain Boys

 and Square Dancing- Pisgah & Pilot/ Mitchell & Roan

Friday, November 7th, 2025

8:00 am – 9:00 am Breakfast (Pisgah & Pilot)

9:00 am – 10:00 am Oral Session III (Mitchell & Roan) Lipidomics and Advances in Lipid Technology and Therapeutics

Session chairs: Jonathan Ma, Weill Cornell Medicine and Anna Kovilakath, Virginia Commonwealth University

9:00 am  Selective degradation of SPT-bound ORMDLs is a longer-term regulatory mechanism to regulate SPT and Sphingolipid levels. Usha Mahawar, PhD, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

9:15 am  PFAS recognition by lipid transport proteins: Structural and biochemical insights from FABP4 and SCP2. Aaron Birchfield, PhD, Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University

9:30 am    Increasing apoAI-mediated cholesterol efflux in cultured pro-inflammatory endothelial cells via cell-specific nanotherapy. Ally Brawner, Department of Food, Nutrition, and Packaging Sciences; Clemson University

9:45 am   Detection of Ferritinophagic Flux Using Halotag Technology. Sachin Kumar Kempelingaiah, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

10:00 am – 10:45 am  Break - please make sure you are checked out of the hotel at this time. 

10:45 am – 11:45 pm Oral Session IV (Mitchell & Roan) Lipids in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease

Session Chairs: Zain Quadri,  University of Kentucky, Lexington and Maryam Jamil, Virginia Commonwealth University

10:45 am  Lipid signaling activates the inflammatory pathways in macrophages, leading to beta cell death and type 1 diabetes development. Thi Yen Ly Huynh, PhD, Department of Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology, Heersink School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham

11:00 am  Ceramide synthase 2 and 5 have opposing roles in a mouse model of diastolic dysfunction. Anna Kovilakath, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University

11:15 am  Cholesterol transport during digestive exophagy and its roles in foam cell formation.  Johnathan Ma, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Weill Cornell Medicine

11:30 am  The Double Life of Spinster Homolog 2:Sending S1P Out, Bringing Glucose In. Cynthia Weigel, PhD, Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

12:00 pm – 12:30 pm     Closing Remarks and SERLC Business meeting to plan for 2026 Conference. 

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm     Lunch (Pisgah & Pilot)

1:30 pm     58th SERLC Meeting adjourned.