Letter from Gökhan S. Hotamışlıgil, MD, PhD

“Science is ever more important for the welfare of humanity. Yet, we are experiencing the greatest challenges to its performance, dissemination, translation, and acceptance at a time where revolutionary opportunities emerge from life sciences and humanity is at its greatest need. Sabri Ülker Center allows us to pursue our most ambitious long-term scientific goals, vigorously and without interruption. We train the next generation of scientists to be bold, follow the science where it leads, and focus on the greatest health challenges with an eye on the impact. We are most grateful for this invaluable privilege and are motivated to pursue fundamental, as well as translational, science and contributions to the well-being of humans around the world.

DEAR FRIENDS,

“Scientific discovery takes far more than the occasional flash of brilliance, as important as that can be. Usually, it takes time, hard work, and patience. It takes training and requires support from others. But it holds a promise like no other area of human endeavor.” I am pleased to report we have made great progress in returning to some variation of ‘normal’ this past year. The adjustments we were able to make in 2020, as a result of the profound effects of COVID-19, have enabled this progress to be made in the latter half of 2021. Worldwide suffering continues with the inability to administer vaccines in significant proportions in many countries, in addition to already existing economic and health care challenges. Travel constraints have affected the mental health of many in science—a field known for the collaboration of people from every country. Many of us have not seen our families in person for an extended period and suffered the loss of loved ones. Despite these issues, our laboratory strives to maintain a positive community feeling—one of mutual respect, compassion, and support—all the more essential during these difficult times. I continue to acknowledge the tremendous value in the efforts made by members of our scientific community in seeking new strategies to maintain and strengthen the international bonds of collaborative research. We appreciate how fortunate we have been to be able to continue our efforts vigorously, as we strive to ease the suffering caused by metabolic diseases.

In May, as the result of a truly outstanding effort by our colleagues in the Sabri Ülker Foundation, we were able to host the 2021 Sabri Ülker Annual International Symposium on Metabolism and Life in a hybrid event. Later in this report, I will give you a view of how this effort was successfully designed and implemented. With speakers from almost every continent, some present in İstanbul, and others speaking from their home laboratories, a record number of international guests were able to stream the symposium live, in both Turkish and English. This report will offer summaries of the presented talks, as well as the opportunity, using a QR reader, to view and listen to some of the recordings from the symposium. This year was also an important one for major scientific achievements made by the Center’s scientists, as several critical manuscripts are now at the publication stage. The findings of these studies will be discussed in more detail in our upcoming report, which will highlight the discovery of a new hormone and mechanism of hormone action, mechanisms underlying inflammation and how they emerge and disrupt the function of fat cells, and how molecular structures of the cells are central for metabolism. We were also thrilled to see our work “Molecular Architecture”, in collaboration with Refik Anadol, featured in the Venice Biennale. Metabolism also emerged as a critical determinant of the course of infectious diseases, most importantly the severity and human mortality caused by the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Our scientists are also exploring novel pathways to limit the damage and death from Covid-19 by exploring metabolic vulnerabilities of the virus towards novel preventive and therapeutic strategies. The continued support of the Ülker family has made all this possible, despite the significant constraints caused by the pandemic.

It is essential that, despite all of the current constraints, we continue our efforts, unabated, to make progress in our ongoing fight against the greatest threats to global human health— metabolic diseases. The intellect and creativity of our laboratory members and colleagues from other institutions, leveraged by the support of the Sabri Ülker Foundation, enable the Sabri Ülker Center to unceasingly strive to make discoveries and advance the science with the ultimate goal of improving the health and well-being of people throughout the world.

Gökhan S. Hotamışlıgil, MD, PhD

Director of the Sabri Ülker Center for Nutrient, Genetic, and Metabolic Research James S. Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health