Energy Unites All Life: Global Experts Gather in Shenzhen for RACMEM 2025
- MM24 News Desk
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
“Everything we do, and everything all animals do, requires energy. That makes energy a unifying currency,” said Professor John Speakman of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) during the 6th International Conference on Recent Advances & Controversies in the Measurement of Energy Metabolism (RACMEM).
Held from October 13 to 17 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, the global conference brought together 221 delegates from 21 countries. Organized by SIAT, the event drew leading experts from diverse fields, including Nobel Prize committee’s former chairperson Barbara Cannon.
The conference aimed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and advance methodologies in energy metabolism research. Discussions spanned innovations in measurement technologies and their applications in understanding energy expenditure across humans and animals.
According to Speakman, investigating how energy demands are regulated has wide-ranging implications—from predicting animal responses to climate change and studying the effects of modern life on obesity and diabetes, to improving sports nutrition and determining food requirements for astronauts in space.
Through thematic presentations and lab tours, participants explored state-of-the-art tools such as metabolic chambers and the double-labelled water technique. Cornelia Loechl, head of the Nutritional & Health-related Environmental Studies Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said she was “deeply impressed” by SIAT’s facilities and expressed interest in future collaborations.
Dr. Zhang Xueying, a researcher at SIAT, described RACMEM as “a uniquely diverse gathering of scientists—one moment learning how lizards respond to temperature changes, the next discussing how anti-obesity drugs impact fat and muscle metabolism.”
The conference also created valuable networking opportunities for young scholars. Wang Tianyi, a student at SIAT, said the event exposed him to cutting-edge global research while connecting him with peers from around the world.
Professor Speakman, a leading authority in energy metabolism, relocated his lab from Beijing’s Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to SIAT five years ago. Since then, his Precision Nutrition Lab has published influential papers in Science and established collaborations with major pharmaceutical firms.
Speakman holds the rare distinction of being a foreign academician of the CAS, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the UK Royal Society — an honor shared by fewer than 30 scientists worldwide. Having worked in China for 15 years, he has received both the National and Guangdong Friendship Awards for his contributions to scientific advancement.
This year’s RACMEM marked the first time the conference was hosted in China. Previous editions were held in Denver (U.S.), Maastricht (Netherlands), Tokyo (Japan), Fribourg (Switzerland), and Quebec (Canada).
As researchers continue to unravel the complexities of energy metabolism, the Shenzhen meeting reinforced a universal truth — that energy is not only the foundation of life but also a bridge connecting disciplines, species, and scientific frontiers.
Comments