Abhijit Basu

Associate Professor

Bose Institute - Jadavpur University

India

About Me

I have earned my BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry (Honors) and Biochemistry respectively from Calcutta University, India. I obtained my PhD from Bose Institute, India where I have studied the interaction of a mycobacterial plasmid DNA replication origin with replication protein. I served as a post-doctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA in the laboratory of Prof. Jerard Hurwitz who is a member of National Academy of Science and is famous for his pioneer research on RNA polymerase and eukaryotic DNA replication. I moved to Cleveland State University in 2008 and currently working as a senior research associate.

Yun CHEN

Research Assistant Professor

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

United States

About Me

I completed my PhD in molecular biology and reproductive immunology at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing in July 2002. As part of my Ph.D. training, I identified rhesus monkey beta-subunit chorionic gonadotropin (rmCGβ). Subsequently, I developed a DNA vaccine for immune-contraceptive therapy based on rmCGβ, as well as explored the potential treatments for endocrine tumors using this DNA immune-vaccine. I pursued my postdoctoral training at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School from August 2002 to May, 2009. During my postdoctoral training period at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, I focused on understanding transcriptional regulation of angiogenesis in endothelial cells, focusing on the cell growth arrest gene, Gax, which encodes an anti-angiogenic protein (Blood, 2008; 111(3): 1217-1226; Mol Cell Biol, 2010; 30(15): 3902-3912; J Biol Chem, 2007; 282(1): 507-517; Cardiovascular Research, 2010; 87(4): 723-731). From May, 2009, I started my early-career research as a senior scientist at Washington University School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Gerald Dorn. My research has focused on molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial apoptosis, necrosis and mitophagy in heart disease. Our work has revealed that the death-promoting protein Nix stimulates both apoptosis and necrosis death pathways, determined by its subcellular localization in the mitochondria versus ER (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (feature article), 2010; 107(20): 9035-9042). To study the biological roles of the mitochondrial outer membrane fusion proteins Mfn1 and Mfn2 in the heart, we generated cardiac specific conditional knockout mouse models. Our results show that both Mfn1 and Mfn2 are essential in modulating mitochondrial fusion-fission remodeling, while only Mfn2, but not Mfn1, is critical for mitochondrial-ER Ca2+ flux, mitochondrial genomic integrity, and mitochondrial quality control. Phosphorylated Mfn2 is required for PINK1-Parkin mediated mitochondrial elimination (Science; 2013; 340: 471-475; Circulation Research. 2012; 111(7): 863-875; Circulation Research 2011; 109(12): 1327-1331). Our research findings have provided new insights into the understanding of diseases caused by dysfunctional mitochondria such as heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, aging and Alzheimer's disease. Currently I work at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a Research Assistant professor. Our research is focusing on studying the mechanism of cell death (apoptosis, necrosis), mitochondrial related macro-autophagy and Chaperon-mediated autophagy (CMA), and the molecular mechanism of cardiac function protection in Chaperon-mediated autophagy deficient hearts.

Gordon L Fung

Clinical Professor

University of California

United States

About Me

I am a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Clinical Health Sciences Tract. In addition to an active clinical practice in consultative general clinical cardiology, I also am medical director of the Electrocardiography Lab at Moffit/Long Hospitals, and the nations first UCSF Asian Heart & Vascular Center located on the Mount Zion Campus on the 2nd floor of the Hellman Building. My research interests are in health disparities primarily involving the Asian/Pacific Islander populations as well as clinical hypertension and prevention. I am currently PI of two Phase III industry sponsored trials with Roche Labs. The first one is with dalcetrapib - a CETP inhibitor that can raise HDL-Cholesterol in the ACS patient. The second is ALECARDIO which is evaluating a combined-balanced ppar alpha/gamma agent in type 2 diabetic patients presenting with ACS to the hospital. Another project is with an electrical engineer to develop a quantitative analysis of the standard 12-lead ECG at rest to determine if Q.E.D. (quantiative electrial dimension) analysis can reliably detect ischemia when compared to myocardial perfusion scan imaging.

Yu Huang

Professor of Biomedical Sciences

Chinese University of Hong Kong

China

Biography

Yu Huang is the founding Director (Basic Sciences) of Institute of Vascular Medicine and the Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. In recent years he has been actively exploring new and more innovative clinically-relevant research or translational research and has published a series of high profile research papers in prestigious journals such as Cell Metabolism, Circulation Research, European Heart Journal, Diabetes, Hypertension, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, Cardiovascular Research, and Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. His main research interests include vascular dysfunction in diabetes, hypertension and metabolic disorder, and vascular pharmacology.

Wilbert Aronow S

Professor of Medicine

Divisions of Cardiology

New York Medical College

United States

Biography

Wilbert S. Aronow MD is Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College/Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY, USA. Dr. Aronow received his MD from Harvard Medical School. He has edited 13 books and is author or co-author of 1,467 papers, 318 commentaries or Letters to the Editor, and 1015 abstracts and is presenter or co-presenter of 1,376 talks at meetings. Dr. Aronow is a Fellow of the ACC, the AHA, the ACP, the ACCP, the AGS (Founding Fellow of Western Section), and the GSA. He has been a member of 119 editorial boards of medical journals, editor-in-chief of 1 journal, co-editor of 2 journals, deputy editor of 1 journal, executive editor of 3 journals, associate editor for 9 journals, and guest editor for 7 other medical journals. He has received each year from 2001-2015 an outstanding teacher and researcher award from the medical residents and from 2001-2015 from the cardiology fellows at Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College. He has received awards from the Society of Geriatric Cardiology, the Gerontological Society of America, New York Medical College including the 2014 Chancellor's Research Award, the F1000 Faculty Member of the Year Award for the Faculty of Cardiovascular Disorders in 2011, 2013, and 2014, the Walter Bleifeld Memorial Award for distinguished contributions to clinical research from the International Academy of Cardiology in July, 2010, and a Distinguished Fellowship Award from the International Academy of Cardiology in July, 2012. He has been a member of 4 national guidelines committees including being a coauthor of the 2010 AMDA guidelines for heart failure , co-chair and first author of the 2011 ACC/AHA expert consensus document on hypertension in the elderly, a coauthor of the 2015 AHA/ACC/ASH scientific statement on treatment of hypertension in patients with coronary artery disease, and is currently a member of the 2016 ACC/AHA/ AAPA ABC/ACPM/AGS/APhA/ASH/ASPC/NMA/PCNA guideline for the management of patients with hypertension. He was a coauthor of a 2015 position paper from the International Lipid Expert Forum. He was a consultant to the American College of Physicians Information and Educational Resource (PIER) on the module of aortic stenosis. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the ASPC and a member of the ACCP Cardiovascular Medicine and Surgery Network Steering Committee.

Said H. Audi

Associate Professor

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Marquette University

United States

Biography

Said H. Audi is working as Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care), Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI. Additional research interests include transplant-induced ischemia-reperfusion injury, and SPECT and optical fluorescence imaging with application to lung metabolic functions in health and disease. Over the past 15 years, I have utilized these computational and experimental tools to evaluate the effects of various models of acute lung injury on capillary perfusion kinematics, and endothelial cell surface, cytosolic, and mitochondrial redox enzymes in isolated perfused lungs and in vivo. He have extensive experience with the isolated perfused lung preparation, multiple indicator dilution methods, lung O2 toxicity and other lung injury models, and computational modeling of lung transport, metabolism, hemodyamics, and perfusion kinematics at all levels of biological organization. His research is funded by grants from the NHLBI, Department of Veterans’ Administration, and Birnschein Foundation.

Robert Pyo

Department of Cardiology

Mount sinai Hospital

United States

Biography

Robert Pyo has received his Doctor of Medicine from University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently, he is working as Assistant Professor in Mount Sinai Hospital for Cardiology department.

Ozgur Karcioglu

Department of Emergency Medicine

Istanbul Education and Research Hospital

Istanbul, Turkey

Biography

Ozgur Karcioglu, graduated from Ege University Medical School in 1993 and Doctorate from Dokuz Eylul University in 1998. He started as a resident in Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Department of Emergency Medicine in 1994. He has gained docentship title in October 2004. In the meantime, he completed the Fellowship Program in International Emergency Medicine Pennsylvania State University, Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Hershey, PA in June-August 2005. He has served as the chairman of the department in DEU between April 2005 and September 2007. He has been in charge of the ED of Istanbul Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for the Turkish Ministry of Health between 2007 and 2009. He has served as a faculty member in Acıbadem University Medical School, Dept. of Emergency Medicine between 2009-15. At the end of 2015 He started serving in the Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Istanbul Education and Research Hospital, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey.

Burton M Altura

Professor of Medicine

New York University

United States

Biography

Overall interest is the role of magnesium, sphingolipids and lipid messengers in vascular biology and disease processes, such as stroke, diabetes mellitus and atherogenesis. An additional major interest is the role of alcohol and substances of abuse in stroke etiology.

Lori A Walker

Department of Cardiology

University of Colorado HSC

United States

Biography

My research efforts are focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of heart failure, a complex, multifactorial syndrome characterized by both cardiac and systemic disturbances. Heart failure is a leading cause of death and disability in Western society, affecting more than 5 million Americans. It is clear from our recent work that an insult – whether environmental or genetic – triggers a multitude of changes at the cellular level that ultimately result in organ level dysfunction. My laboratory utilizes a number of unique models in order to address the mechanism of cardiac dysfunction including a mouse myocardial infarction model and transgenic mouse models of progressive heart failure. Additionally, our collaborative efforts allow us to study a large animal (bovine) model of right heart dysfunction and collaborations with the surgeons at the University of Colorado Hospital provide access to human heart samples – allowing elucidation of relevant pathways in human cardiac tissue.

Donna Wang

Distinguished Professor

Michigan State University, USA

United States

Biography

More than seventy-four million American adults suffer from hypertension, a debilitating disease leading to end organ damage including renal failure, heart failure, and stroke. Indeed, 74% of Americans with congestive heart failure have high blood pressure. Our research, using state of the art molecular biological and neurobiological techniques combined with nanotechnology, focuses on elucidating how neuro hormonal systems, in interacting with changing environment, regulates blood pressure and cardiovascular function, and how dysfunction of molecules expressed in the neuro-hormonal systems leads to hypertension and tissue or organ damage including cardiac hypertrophy and infarction. Once key molecules are identified orcharacterized and their mechanisms of action understood, newer and more targeted drugs/interventions may be developed that may accelerate/improve clinical practice of personalized medicine.

Mohamed Eddouks

Department of Physiology

Moulay Ismail University

Morocco

Biography

Mohamed Eddouks is Professor at Moulay Ismail University, Morocco. He is a Researcher in physiology and pharmacology with an M.S. degree in metabolic and molecular endocrinology from the University of Paris 6, France, a specialized certificate in endocrine pharmacology from the University of Paris 7, France, and PhD degrees in physiology and pharmacology from the University of Liege, Belgium, and Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco. After his postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine of Montreal, Canada, he is working for the last 14 years on medicinal plants. His research focuses on ethnobiological as well as pharmacological issues in the use of Moroccan medicinal plants for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, obesity, and hypertension. His contribution to this field includes three international books and more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters of international repute. He is member of the editorial boards of 14 international journals. He is also a member of panel of experts of several international journals. He has been the Dean of Polydisciplinary Faculty of Errachidia(2008-2012).

Michael Hart C

Professor of Medicine

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Emory University

United States

Biography

Mike Hart, MD, a native of Birmingham, AL, is currently Professor and Assistant Dean of VA Research at Emory University and serves as the Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. He received a BS degree from Duke University, MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and residency training in Internal Medicine and fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Florida. Dr. Hart served as a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Indiana University in Indianapolis for ten years before moving to his current institution, Emory University 12 years ago. His laboratory which focuses on endothelial cell and nitric oxide biology has been continuously funded by the NIH or the VA for nearly twenty years. Current areas of investigative focus include studies examining the ability of the nuclear hormone receptor, to serve as a therapeutic target that regulates expression of NADPH oxidase in disorders associated with vascular oxidative stress including diabetes, chronic alcohol ingestion, and pulmonary hypertension.

Larissa A Lipskaia

Department of Cardiology

Mount Sinai Hospital

United States

Biography

Larissa Lipskaia has a broad background in cellular and molecular biology with specific training and expertise in cardiac and vascular physiology in small animal model. As a postdoctoral fellow at Henri Mondor Hospital (Creteil, France) she has created and explored several transgenic mice models with cardiac expression of different isoforms of Adenylyl Cyclases. At the Paris XII University (Chatênay-Malabry, France) and Paris VI University (Paris, France) she has explored the role of calcium signaling in vascular smooth muscle proliferation. At Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, USA) she expanded her research to include small animal model of cardiac or vascular disease. As PI or Co-investigator on several previous grants, she laid the groundwork by developing transgenic animal models or animal models of cardiac and vascular disease, by developing of virus vectors and by extensive experience in gene transfer and physiology of cardiac, vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells.

Juan Carlos

Staff Cardiologist

Cardiology Department

Hospital Virgen Macarena

Spain

Biography

Juan Carlos García Rubira has received his PhD in University of Seville, Spain during the period of 1986. Currently he is working as Staff Cardiologist, Cardiology Department, Hospital Virgen Macarena, Sevilla, Spain. He is serving as an editorial member of Journal of Cardiology and Therapy. He has authored 84 articles in pubmed, Co-director of thesis. He is also a member of European Society of Cardiology and Sociedad Española de Cardiología.

John C Messenger

Associate Professor

Division of Cardiology

University of Colorado

United States

Biography

John C. Messenger, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he has been since 1999. He currently serves as the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories as well as the Cardiovascular ICU and Intermediate Care Unit at the University of Colorado Hospital. He also practices at the Denver VA Medical Center and Childrens Hospital of Colorado. In addition, he has been the Program Director for the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Training Program at University of Colorado since 2005. He currently serves as the Chair of the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR CathPCI Research and Publications Committee and is a member of the NCDR CathPCI Steering Committee. In addition, he serves as the Chair of the Simulation Committee for the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

Jan Fedacko

1st Department of Internal Medicine

Pavol Jozef Safarik University, Centre of Excellency for Atherosclerosis Research

Slovakia

Biography

Jan Fedacko, MD, PhD, FICC, FICN is Assistant Professor at Department of Medicine and Centre of Excellency for Atherosclerosis Research at Louis Pasteur University Hospital and Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovak Republic. After obtaining a diploma in General Medicine of Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovak Republic (2005) the Ph.D. study (negative pleiotropic effect of the statins and possibilities of its treatment) was completed in year 2010. He is member of executive board of International College of Cardiology, member of International College of Clinical Nutrition, Slovak Association of Cardiology, Slovak Association of Atherosclerosis and member of Editorial Advisory Board of several journals. In the clinical and research area he is focused on preventive cardiology, prevention and treatment of the atherosclerosis diseases, as well as in cardiac imaging techniques. He has published several papers in domestic and international journals, including several international lectures.

Hui Sun

Faculty and Research Associate

Department of Medicine

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

United States

Biography

Hui Sun completed her MD degree at Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Science in China, followed by Internal Medicine residency training in Hubei medical University, clinical fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute in China, and clinical fellowship in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Louis Pradel Cardiovascular Hospital in Lyon, France. She subsequently completed my PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering at Claude Bernard University Lyon-I in France, and post-doctoral training in Cardiac Ion Channel Electrophysiology and Excitation-Contraction Coupling at Montreal Heart Institute in Canada. She worked as Research Scientist in Heart & Stroke Richard Lewar Center of Excellence at University of Toronto, Canada, and as Principal Scientist at Excigen Inc., Baltimore before joining Johns Hopkins University in 2009. She is currently a Research Faculty in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. My current research interests are (1) Ion Channels in vascular physiology and in pulmonary hypertension; and (2) Vagal afferent excitability in health and in disease.

Shipeng Wei

Department of Internal Medicine

Augusta University

United States

Biography

Dr. Shipeng Wei, graduated in 2001 from Harbin Medical University in Harbin, China. During training in General Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology, he developed his research in the field of oxidative stress and heart diseasees, which focuses on serum oxidative biomarkers and the prognosis of heart diseases. To date, he has published over 30 articles in international journals. His other research interests include cardiac arrhythmia and electrophysiology, electrophysiology and ion channels. Now he is actively serving as editorial members in more than 10 international journals and as reviewers for more than 20 journals. He has been invited as a reviewer for the American Free Radical Journals for 4 consecutive years. He started his internal medicine residency training in Augusta University in 2016 and is now actively involved in both clinical and basic research.

Sandeep Kumar K

Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology

Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research

India

Biography

Dr. Sandeep Kumar Kar is presently working as Assistant Professor, Super specialty department of Cardiac Anesthesiology, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, and Kolkata, India. He has represented India in several world congress in Anesthesiology and Critical Care. He has published more than fifty research articles and reviews in high impact international journals including Anesthesiology (Journal of American Society of Anesthesiology). He is in the Editorial board of several journals and Editor of Translational Biomedicine, Insight of Blood Pressure, Journal of Neurosurgery, and Interventional Cardiology and Clinical & Experimental Cardiology. He has won several international and National awards like Janak Mehta National Award for best paper in Cardiac Anesthesiology, B Braun Scholar of the year (2012), ESOP Scholarship (NWAC 2013) and presented papers and lectures in several National and International conferences. He is also a Poet and Writer of international repute with poetry published in several international Journals.

Rajesh Rajan

Professor

Sabah Al Ahmad Cardiac Center, Al-Amiri Hospital

Kuwait

Biography

Dr. Rajesh Rajan MD, Ph.D, FRCP(UK), FRCP (Ire), FACC, FESC, FAHA is the current President of the Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists. He has been the recipient of several distinguished fellowships, including those from the Royal College of Physicians UK&Ireland, European Society of Cardiology, American College of Cardiology, and American Heart Association. Dr Rajan has been in charge of various clinical research registries in heart failure and authored several publications. He is actively involved in various global forums and committees in the field of cardiology. He currently works at Sabah Al-Ahmad Cardiac Center, Al-Amiri Hospital.

P. Syamasundar Rao

University of Texas

United States

Biography

Dr. P. Syamasundar Rao is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Emeritus Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School and Professor of Pediatrics at the University Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Dr. Rao received his medical degree from Andhra Medical College/University, Visakhapatnam, India where he subsequently served internship and began pediatric training. Following completion of pediatric training in USA, he received training in Pediatric Cardiology at Stanford University, Case-Western Reserve University and University of California at Los Angeles. After training he joined the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, USA, then rose to the rank of Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director of Pediatric Cardiology. His subsequent positions were Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Professor and Director of Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin and Professor and Director, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine/Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Rao authored 360 papers, ten monographs/books and 60 book chapters. He had 230 abstract presentations at various national and international scientific societies and his invited presentations were 150. He lectured and made catheter intervention demonstrations in a number of countries including India, USA, Australia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil and Japan. Dr. Rao’s honors include Award for Outstanding Contribution to Pediatric Cardiology, presented by Telugu Association of North America, John Linds Lecture at Swedish Pediatric Association, Gothenburg, Sweden, Meritorious Service Award from Wisconsin Nicaragua Partners of the Americas, Outstanding Service Award from Healing the Children of Wisconsin, Outstanding Scientist Award from American Association of Cardiologists of Indian Origin and Kreidberg’s Lecture at Tufts University/New England Medical Center, Boston, MA.. He is a pioneer in interventional pediatric cardiology and made many contributions in catheterization and angiography in 1970s, balloon angioplasty/valvuloplasty in 1980s and transcatheter catheter closure of cardiac defects in 1990s, developed new pediatric cardiology/pediatric cardiovascular surgery program in 2000s and developing educational programs for physicians in 2010s.

Nitish Badhwar

Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine

University of California

United States

Biography

Dr. Nitish Badhwar is a specialist in the mapping and ablation of supraventricular arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias. While at UCSF Medical Center, Badhwar has conducted research on catheter ablation of focal atrial tachycardias using a new 3-dimensional nonfluoroscopic mapping system. He has worked to describe the electrophysiologic characteristics of atrial tachycardia arising from the coronary sinus muscle. He also is working to assess left ventricular dyssynchrony and is involved in device implantation including the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and biventricular pacing for heart failure. Badhwar received his medical degree from Maulana Azad Medical College at the University of Delhi in India. After completing his internal medicine training at the New York Hospital of Queens, affiliated with Cornell Medical School, he became a faculty member of the Department of Medicine at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, Yale University School of Medicine. Badhwar completed his cardiology training at Louisiana State University and cardiac electrophysiology training with Dr. Melvin Scheinman at UCSF, where he joined the faculty in 2003. Badhwar is a NASPExAM Testamur, which means he completed a competency exam on pacing and defibrillation administered by the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology.

Muthuvel Jayachandran

Associate Professor

Department of Physiology

Mayo Clinic

United States

Biography

Dr. Muthuvel Jayachandran is Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. Upon obtaining a PhD in Biochemistry from University of Madras, India, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to do cardiovascular research at Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan. In 2000, he moved to USA to continue his research in cardiovascular pathophysiology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. Dr. Jayachandran received many awards for his research from various professional organizations including Young Scientist Award from ASIOA, Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association, a Novel Methodology Grant Award and a Pilot Grant from Mayo Clinic. He is also Co-Investigator of multiple R01 grants funded by the National Institute of Health. Dr. Jayachandran has published more than 40 peer-reviewed research articles, and written several reviews, book chapters and editorials. He is a reviewer of 19 scientific journals.

Fatima Mraiche

Assistant Professor

Qatar University

Qatar

Biography

Dr. Mraiche is an Assistant Professor and the Chair of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Section at the College of Pharmacy, Qatar University. She received her BSc. in Pharmacology with distinction at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). After completing her BSc in 2004, Dr. Mraiche pursued a PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of Alberta. Dr. Mraiche specializes in cardiovascular research and understanding the clinical implications of the remodeled heart, with particular emphasis on how changes in the intracellular pH contribute to this phenomenom. Dr. Mraiche has extensive training in molecular biology, generation, maintenance and characterization of transgenic animals and adenoviruses. She is also highly skilled in heart perfusions and performing animal surgery. Dr. Mraiche has received various competitive grants as a principal investigator including the major National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) grant from the Qatar National Research Foundation and the European Society of Cardiology. In addition, in November 2013, Dr. Fatimas was recognized by the L’Oreal-UNESCO as one of the top ten women Arab Scientists.

Emil Missov

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Clinical Trials Center Laboratory

United States

Biography

Dr. Missov received his medical degree from the University of Plovdiv in Bulgaria. He furthered his training in cardiology, interventional cardiology and hemodynamics at the University of Montpellier in France. He also earned a PhD in clinical cardiovascular disease from the University of Montpellier. He went on to complete a post-doctoral heart failure fellowship at the University of California San Francisco, and a cardiovascular disease fellowship at the University of Minnesota.

Masao Kakoki

Associate Professor

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

The University of North Carolina

United States

Biography

Dr. Masao Kakoki is a physician-scientist in nephrology and cardiovascular medicine. He obtained the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Tokyo in Japan. Since he joined Dr. Oliver Smithies’ laboratory in 2001, he has devoted himself to molecular biology with emphasis on understanding the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for cardiovascular and renal dysfunction in diabetes mellitus and aging using genetically altered mice. He proposed in 2004 a unique mouse model to modify the expression of the gene of interest in a wide range, which was cited as “three prime mice”. This technique alter gene expression in mice by targeted replacement of the 3’ untranslated region (UTR) of the gene of interest with more unstable 3’UTR or with more stable 3’UTR. He is studying the renal and cardiovascular phenotype in mice with graded expression levels of therapeutic candidate genes to find new ways to prevent or treat diabetes- and aging-associated complications in humans.

Lin Yang

Department of Radiology and Vascular Diseases

Sichuan University

China

Biography

Dr. Lin Yang, MD, now is a professor of Medicine, Associate director of Department of Radiology and Oncology, director of Interventional Section of North Sichuan Medical College, Member of the European Society for Cardiovascular Intervention Radiology. He got his Medicine Doctor's degree at West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University. Currently Dr. Lin Yang’ researches focus on cancer and vascular diseases.

Raman K

Professor

Department of Cardiology

Mount Sinai University

United States

Biography

Dr. K-Raman Purushothaman MD, research medical pathologist with more than 15 years of expertise in cardiovascular pathology by evaluating plaque compositional changes in atherosclerosis. His focus of interest is to identify etiopathogenesis of vulnerable plaque features that includes neovasculaization, intra plaque hemorrhage, apoptosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, medial artery calcification and fibrosis using advanced histopathological techniques. He is involved in detailed study of plaque compositional changes leading to plaque progression and regression associated with risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and haptoglobin genotypes. He has extensive in-depth expertise in evaluation of human coronary, aortic, carotid and peripheral arterial plaque characterization. He is currently studying human heart valve biology to elucidate lesion severity in disease progression in myxomatous mitral valve degeneration and bicuspid aortic valve disease. His focus of interest is to identify etiopathotogenesis of chordae tendinae rupture in Fibro elastic deficiency versus Barlow’s disease in the mitral valve leaflets.

Josh J. Wang

Assistant Professor of Research

Department of Medicine & Ophthalmology

The State University of New York at Buffalo

United States

Biography

Dr. Josh J. Wang received his MD and MS from Hubei University of Medicine and Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences in China and completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at the University affiliated hospitals. After he came to the United States, Dr Wang completed his post-doctoral fellowship training at Medical University of South Carolina and University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (2003 and 2006), then became a Research Associate and junior faculty at Health Sciences Center. He joined the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine as a faculty member in 2012. Dr Wang is an accomplished clinical investigator, researcher and educator. His research interests focus on diabetes related vascular complications such as diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic peripheral vascular diseases. He has lectured nationally and internationally. Dr. Wang has authored/co-authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers, review articles, book chapters in the field of diabetes and vascular diseases.

Jose M Wiley

Professor

Division of Cardiology

Mount Sinai University

United States

Biography

Dr. Jose Wiley has worked tirelessly to provide critical medical services to the disadvantaged and underprivileged around the world. He embarked on this mission in Puerto Rico, where he completed medical school at the Universidad Central del Caribe, Bayamon, Puerto Rico in June 1994.That same year he joined the United States Army Reserve and quickly rose to his current rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He then moved to New Orleans, Louisiana and completed a residency in internal medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine in June 1998. He subsequently completed a fellowship in cardiology at the same university in June 2001. On this year he served as chief cardiology fellow. He was also awarded with the Albert Hyman fellow of the year award for his exemplary performance as a cardiology fellow. During that period, he developed an epidemiologic study of cardiovascular disease in Hispanics in New Orleans. The product of this study was published and presented at the Southern Medical Society annual meeting in 1999 winning an honorific mention. Dr. Wiley was also recognized in 1999 by the major of New Orleans, Hon. Marc Morial, Jr., and awarded with the Honorary Citizenship of the city of New Orleans for his volunteer medical services on the Hispanic population of the city. He subsequently completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at The Ochsner Clinic Foundation in June 2002.

Johanna Contreras

Department of Cardiology

Mount Sinai Hospital

United States

Biography

Dr. Johanna is currently serving as an Assistant professor in the Cardiology Department in the Mount Sinai University, USA. She has done her specialization in Internal medicine and Cardiology. Her research interests include Angina, Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure, Heart Transplant, Metabolic Syndrome, Myocarditis, Obesity and Pulmonary Hypertension.

Joel A Garcia

Associate Professor

Department of Cardiology

University of Colorado

United States

Biography

Dr. Joel A. Garcia is part of a multi-disciplinary team of health care providers specializing in Cardiovascular Diseases, Peripheral Vascular Disease, and Structural Heart Disease at the University of Colorado Hospital and Denver Health Medical Center. Dr. Garcia mostly works as an Interventional Cardiologist with training in advanced percutaneous therapies for coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and structural heart disease. He has been certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Endovascular Board and Interventional Cardiology. Dr. Garcia received his MD from the “Madre y Maestra” Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Dominican Republic where he was born and raised. He completed his residency at Wayne State University, Michigan and his Cardiovascular Diseases, Interventional and Peripheral Fellowship at the University of Colorado Hospital at Denver. He is currently a staff cardiologist at Denver Health Medical Center and the University of Colorado Hospital. At Denver Health Medical Center he serves as Director of Interventional Services (Coronary, Peripheral and Structural) and Catheterization Laboratory. Dr. Garcia is a past member of the Council of Associates of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and a member of several professional societies including the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Medical Association (AMA), American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions (SCAI). He is also a reviewer for the International Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging, and the Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions Journals. He is actively involved in imaging research, and is the author of numerous research papers, book chapters, abstracts, patents, web publications and has participated in multiple national and international educational symposia winning several abstract competitions. Dr. Garcia has been the recipient of many national, international, and institutional awards for his clinical excellence, leadership, and research involvement. Among those he was the recipient of a Young Investigator Award (ICIM, Japan), the American Medical Association (AMA) Leadership Award, an Emerging Young Leadership Award from Cardiovascular Revascularization Therapies (CRT), SCAI/GE Research Award, ACCF/BMS Award, and a Clinical Research Fellows Conference Award. During his early training at Wayne State University Dr. Garcia was the recipient of Awards as the Outstanding Intern of the year, Outstanding 2nd year resident and Outstanding 3rd year resident. He was also the Outstanding first year fellow at the University of Colorado and Outstanding Research Fellow as well. He has received a “ 2012 Top Doctor” nomination in interventional Cardiology and has been awarded the 2012 Outstanding Clinician Award at Denver Health medical Center. Dr. Garcia is also an active fellow of several medical specialty societies like the ACP, ACC, and SCAI.

Ivan Domuschiev

Associate Professor

Medical University in Plovdiv

Bulgaria

Biography

Dr. Ivan Domuschiev is born 1961 in the town Panagiuriste. He graduated the German Language School “Bertold Brecht” in Pazardjik City with fully excellent marks and a medal. He graduated in 1986 the Medical Univercity in Plovdiv city with fully excellent marks as promotor of the course (speciality“medicine“). He defended a dissertation with a conference on the scientific degree” Philosophy Doctor in Medicine“(Ph.D.) in the field of the endocrinology (diabetology). He was long time Assistant-Professor in internal diseases and endocrinology as well as he leaded clinical exercises in postgraduated teaching. He worked as Assistant-Professor at the Clinic of Endocrinology – Medical University in Plovdiv, Clinic of Endocrinology- Medical Institute- Central Clinical Base in Sofia, National Sport Academy in Sofia. He has 82 scientific publications, whereof 8 scientific monographies, 1 practical handbook for diabetics, as well as great number of participations at scientific symposiums and congresses in Bulgaria and foreign countries. His scientific publications are in the field of endocrinology, diabetology, cardiology and other areas of the internal medicine, neurovegetology, phytotherapy and anti-aging medicine. He has own scientific investigations in the field of the heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with various diseases.

John Hwa

Associate Professor of Cardiology

University of Sydney

United States

Biography

Dr. Hwa received his medical degree (with First Class Honors) from the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia in 1986. He completed his Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Cardiology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia, in 1992. He then pursued further studies in the Department of Molecular Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation during which time he completed his doctoral thesis through Case Western Reserve University (1996). Dr. Hwa was then awarded a Howard Hughes Physician Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue studies at M.I.T in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, H. Gobind Khorana. He joined the faculty At Dartmouth (Pharmacology and Toxicology and Medicine) in 2000 and moved to Yale (Section of Cardiovascular Medicine) in 2009.

George Chalikias

Senior Lecturer in Cardiology

Democritus University of Thrace

Alexandroupolis, Greece

Biography

Dr. George Chalikias was born in 1973, he graduated from Medical School, of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in 1997. Since then he have been actively involved with clinical practice of Cardiology in a Hospital setting. In 2005, he gained my PhD thesis in Cardiology. he have completed his residency in Cardiology in 2010 and since then he is working as a Senior Lecturer in the Cardiology Department, Medical School at the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, with clinical, educational and research activities. From June 2015 he is working in the same Department as Assist. Prof. in Cardiology. His clinical interests are in non-invasive imaging in Cardiology (Echocardiography) as well as in Acute Cardiac Care whereas his research interests are in Clinical Epidemiology. Until today, he have authored or co-authored over 50 manuscripts, chapters in several books related to Cardiology. During his career as young investigator he have been awarded several research awards and he have also presented numerous abstracts in Cardiology Congresses. He is a member of the European Cardiology Society, of the European Association of Heart Failure and of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging.

Mikhael F EL-Chami

Department of Cardiology

Emory University Hospital Midtown

United States

Biography

Dr. EL-Chami is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University Hospital Midtown. Dr. El-Chami received his undergraduate and Doctor of Medicine degree at American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He completed his internship and residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta Georgia. His cardiac electrophysiology fellowship was also completed at Emory. He has been an Emory Faculty since 2008 and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. El-Chami’s professional interests involve the treatment of heart rhythm disorders. He has had numerous publications and continues to be involved in research on a number of studies related to atrial fibrillation and management of heart failure through device therapy.

Michael G Del Core

Associate Professor

Division of Cardiology

Creighton University

United States

Biography

Dr. Del Core, a New York native, graduated from Creighton University School of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Cardiology Fellowship at Creighton University Medical Center. Dr. Del Core is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and The Society of Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. He is board-certified in Intern al Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology; his specialty is Interventional Cardiology. Dr. Del Core received the 2007 Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching and dedication to patient care.

Dayue Darrel

professor

Department of Pharmacology

University of Nevada

United States

Biography

Dr. Dayue Darrel Duan, MD, PhD, FAHA, is a Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology and Principle Investigator of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Phenomics in the Center for Molecular Medicine at School of Medicine, University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada, USA. Dr. Duan discovered several anion channels in the heart and has made significant original contributions to the study of biophysics, physiology, pharmacology, and molecular biology of ion channels in the cardiovascular system. His current research is focusing on the phenomics, functional genomics and proteomics of ion channels in the cardiovascular systems. The Duan laboratory has established several animal models for cardiac diseases and hypertension and has the capacity to study the genome-phenome relationship and molecular mechanisms for cardiovascular disease at multiple levels ranging from whole animal to molecular levels. He delivered over 200 invited lectures and seminars throughout the world, and has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters

Chinmoy Patra

Research Associate and Faculty

Agharkar Research Institute

India

Biography

Dr. Chinmoy patra was born in Pune,India. He did his Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science at Jadavpur University,Kolkata, India during the year 2001-2005. He did his Master of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India during the year 2005-2007. He did his Doctoral thesis from Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany during 2007-2010. He did his Post-Doctoral fellow Department of Heart Development and Regeneration, MPI for Heart and Lung Research, Germany during 2010-2012. Currently he is working as Scientist at the Agharkar Research Institute.

Jiqiu Chen

Mount Sinai University

United States

Biography

Dr. Chen is an assistant professor in medicine in cardiovascular research institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He got his medical education from Kunming Medical College in China and had postdoctoral training in Zhong Shan Medical University, Beijing Medical University and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. His current researches include studies of (1) the role of fibrosis in development of congestive heart failure: (2) Gene and stem cells therapy for congestive heart failure.

Melvin Cheitlin

Emeritus Professor of Medicine

University of California

United States

Biography

Dr. Cheitlin graduated from Temple University Medical School in Philadelphia, PA. He immediately joined the Army and did internship, Internal Medicine residency, and Cardiology fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He moved to Madigan Army Medical Center where he was Chief of cardiology. Thereafter he served as chief of Cardiology at Tripler General Hospital in Honolulu, Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, at which point he retired in 1974. He then joined UCSF as Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief and later Chief of Cardiology at San Francisco General Hospital. In 1998 he retired a second time, and is presently Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UCSF. He has published over 200 articles, 60 chapters in cardiology textbooks and is the author of one and editor of 2 other cardiology textbooks. He has served as Chair of the Cardiovascular Board and on the Board of Governors of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr Cheitlin was highly active in the American College of Cardiology and served on the ACC Board of Trustees. He served as President of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology. Dr. Cheitlin has served as associate editor of Circulation and as associate editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). At present he is an Associate Editor of the Yearbook of Cardiology. Among several honors he received from the ACC were the Gifted Teacher Award and designation as Master, American College of Cardiology. He was also given the Laureate Award by the Army Chapter of the American College of Physicians .He received the Special Recognition Award from the Laennec Society of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, American Heart Association.

Alfonso Eirin

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division of Nephrology and Hypertension

Mayo Clinic

United States

Biography

Dr. Alfonso Eirin has received his MD in 2004 from the University of the Republic in Montevideo Uruguay. Currently, he is working as a senior research fellow in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Eirin’s research is focused on understanding the pathogenesis of renal and cardiac injury due to atherosclerotic renovascular disease (ARVD) and the developing of treatment strategies to improve blood pressure and renal outcomes after revascularization in these patients.

Deepakraj Gajanana

Department of cardiology

Albert Einstein Medical Center

United States

Biography

Deepakraj Gajanana is a graduate of Bangalore Medical College, India. Currently he is in training as General Cardiology fellow at Albert Einstein Medical center in Philadelphia. He has an additional training in Cardiac Transplant/Congestive Heart Failure fellowship. He will pursue his Interventional Cardiology training at Med Star Georgetown University/Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC.

David Irwin

Department of Cardiology

University of Colorado

United States

Biography

David Irwin is currently serving as Assistant Professor for the Department of Cardiology in the University of Colorado, USA. His research interests include Determining therapeutic strategies for the treatment of acute mountain sickness, Determining the how cerebral hypoxia induces lung injury, Determining if Nrf2-induction protects the lung or brain against hypoxia induced vascular leak, Determining the contribution of cell free hemoglobin to vascular diseases secondary to sickle cell anemia.

Cocco Giuseppe

Medical Practice

Department Cardiology

University of Basle

Swaziland

Biography

Clinical Pharmacology, Mechanical and Pharmacological Ergometry (ECG and Echocardiography). 3D-Echo-cardiography. Arrhythmias, Heart Rate Variability. Heart Diseases, Cardiovascular Prevention.

Qinghui Chen

Assistant Professor

Michigan Technological University

Houghton, United States

Biography

Biography: Dr. Qing-Hui Chen received his MD from Nantong University College of Medicine, China, PhD from Kagawa University Medical School, Japan. Dr. Chen currently is an Assistant Professor of Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, Michigan Technological University. Dr. Chen’s lab aims to understand how the central autonomic system regulates cardiovascular function and body fluid and sodium homeostasis. The focus of Dr. Chen’s lab research is to identify the neural mechanisms of sympathetic activation in cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders. His recent work pioneered in the understanding of how the properties ion channels among autonomic neurons in the hypothalamus are modified during the development of Salt-Sensitive Hypertension and Congestive Heart Failure, to enhance their excitability in support of elevated sympathetic outflow. Multi-level approaches ranging from the whole animal study to ion channel recordings, molecular biology and gene manipulation are currently being applied to research projects. Dr. Chen has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers and his research program has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Health and American Heart Association. For more information, visit: https://sites.google.com/a/mtu.edu/chen-lab/

Alexander Ghanem

Department of Cardiology

University of Bonn

Germany

Biography

Alexander Ghanem received the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Bonn, Germany, in 2003. In his dissertation, he validated the accuracy of echocardiography in mice. He currently serves as the Leader of the research workgroup Experimental Sonography and Sonotherapy and works as attending in interventional cardiology at the Department of Medicine/Cardiology at the University Hospital Bonn. Ghanem is currently appointed as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Bonn.

Michael Farkouh

Associate Professor of Cardiology

Mount Sinai Hospital

United States

Biography

After obtaining his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1988, Dr. Farkouh interned at the Toronto General Hospital. In 1992, he completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic followed by a fellowship in Academic General Internal Medicine from McMaster University where he studied for the Master of Science in Epidemiology under Professor David Sackett. Under the mentorship of Professor Salim Yusuf, Dr. Farkouh studied cardiovascular clinical trials. He completed his cardiovascular fellowship at Mount Sinai in 1998.Dr. Farkouh has designed and conducted numerous pivotal clinical trials including: CHEER (Chest Pain Evaluation in the Emergency Room), TARGET, STATUS and FREEDOM (enrolling). His areas of research include: evaluation of chest pain syndromes, diabetes and heart diseases and the relationship of anti-inflammatory agents and heart disease. Dr. Farkouh is the PI for the BARI 2D and TRIUMPH trials at Mount Sinai. His past appointments include director of the telemetry unit at Mount Sinai, director of the cardiac care unit at New York University and director of the Electrocardiography Core Laboratory at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. He has been awarded Teacher of the Year in the Department of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Farkouh has been an invited speaker internationally and served on numerous data safety monitoring boards.

Prithwish Banerjee

Associate Professor

University of Warwick

United Kingdom

Dirk Skowasch

professor

Department of Cardiology

University of Bonn

Germany

Burton M. Altura

professor

State University of New York Downstate Medical Center

United States

Natale Daniele Brunetti

Assistant Professor

Cardiology Department

University of foggia

Italy

Peter Miller Buttrick

Division of Cardiology

University of Colorado

United States

Daniel Duprez

Professor of Cardiology

University of Minnesota

United States

Biography

Dr. Duprez completed medical school, a residency, a cardiology fellowship, a doctorate in biomedical sciences, and a Ph.D. in cardiology. He also completed a physiology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.From research studies to clinical practice, Dr. Daniel Duprez’s cardiology interests span the prevention of cardiovascular disease in the general population to its occurrence in patients with organ transplants, patients with HIV, . Dr. Duprez is the author of more than 250 articles and 55 book chapters, and more than 1000 lectures nationally and internationally on a wide range of cardiology topics.

Liu Dong

Assistant Professor of Physiology

Morehouse School of Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Institute

Atlanta, Georgia

About Me

I have a broad background in cardiovascular studies, with specific expertise in stem cell, microvesicle, microRNA and angiogenesis research. I have laid the groundwork for the proposed research by providing the evidence that microvesicles from adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), particularly from endothelial differentiation medium (EDM)-preconditioned ASCs, promote angiogenesis in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo (Matrigel plug assay). To further examine the potential effects of these proangiogenic microvesicles as a therapeutic approach for the ischemic heart, my laboratory recently developed techniques to establish a mouse myocardial infarction model and perform echocardiography. Besides focusing on my project, I have collaborated with my colleagues by providing expertise in angiogenesis, which led to an article recently accepted for publication.