Welcome

Over the past years, lactate has lost its early meaning of metabolic waste, highly enriched in tumours. So far, it has been re-discovered as a signalling molecule that plays important roles in the regulation of metabolic pathways, immune response and cell-to-cell communication, within the tumour microenvironment as well as in inflammatory disorders and other pathological conditions.

This EMBO Workshop will highlight the new recent breakthroughs by presenting state-of-the-art research tackling these questions: What are the known functional roles of lactate? Is lactate a triggering molecule of underinvestigated pathways? How can the lactate transporters/receptors targeting improve the clinical management of human tumors? How can the development of tools to trace lactate accumulation, consumption and shuttling in human tumors strongly affect the clinical approach to such pathologies? The goal of this EMBO Workshop is to provide scientists a common scenario where lactate acts and orchestrates different molecular signatures in order to promote the cross-disciplinary collaboration crucial for a comprehensive understanding of lactate metabolism and function.