May 6, 2018
RISK FACTORS AND PREDICTORS FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Lessons from epidemiology and environmental CVD risk factors
Yusuf Salim, Hamilton, USA
Lessons from genetics: risk-score and novel candidates
Brian A. Ference, Detroit, USA
Is there need to revise goals from lipid lowering
Ulf Landmesser, Berlin, Germany
Ulf Landmesser
Berlin, Germany
Professor Ulf Landmesser acts since October 2014 as Chairman of the Department of Cardiology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (CBF).
After his medical studies at the Medical School of Hannover, the University of Connecticut in Farmington (USA) and the National Heart&Lung Institute in London, he specialised in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the Medical School of Hannover. In 2000/2001 he performed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Department of Cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta (USA) as a scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with a focus in vascular biology. He was then appointed Consultant Cardiologist at the Medical School of Hanover, Germany. In 2007, he was called as Senior Consultant Cardiologist with a focus on acute and interventional cardiology as well as on translational cardiovascular research to the Department of Cardiology at the University Hospital of Zurich, where he later acted as Vice-Chairman of the Department of Cardiology.
He received the Götz Award in 2012, the official award of the medical faculty of the University of Zurich. He serves since 2008 as Deputy Editor of the European Heart Journal.
Professor Landmesser has a particular research interest in lipids, vascular biology and coronary disease.
Stress, behavior and cardiovascular disease
Viola Vaccarino, Atlanta, USA
Viola Vaccarino
Atlanta, USA
Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., is the Wilton Looney Chair of Cardiovascular Research, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, USA. She received an M.D. from the University of Milan, Italy, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Yale University. She is a recognized leader on mind-body relationships in heart disease and on the role of psychological stress, mental health and behavioral factors on cardiovascular risk. Dr. Vaccarino is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed research publications and has an extensive record of research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
May 7, 2018
PATHOGENESIS OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS
Neoatherosclerosis from a pathologist's point of view
Renu Vimani, Gaithersburg, USA
Renu Vimani
Gaithersburg, USA
Dr. Virmani is an internationally renowned cardiovascular pathologist. She is recognized as a leading researcher in the field of cardiovascular disease treatments. Currently Dr. Virmani serves as the President of CVPath Institute, which she founded in 2005. Dr. Virmani lectures at scientific meetings, both nationally and internationally, and has delivered more than 800 presentations globally. She is responsible for multiple research grants in the field of cardiovascular pathology and has authored or co-authored over 700 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the field of atherosclerosis, vulnerable plaque, stents, and other cardiovascular diseases. She has edited 7 books and written over 100 book chapters. Dr. Virmani is also a manuscript reviewer for many scientific journals.
Dr. Virmani was recently presented with the 2012 TCT Career Achievement Award by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. She has also been recognized by the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Associations and also delivered the Laennec Clinician Educator Lecture in 2010. She was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Antwerp, Belgium in 2008 and has also received honorary awards from European Society of Cardiology (2008) and EuroPCR (2006).
Dr. Virmani is also Clinical Professor, Department of Pathology at Georgetown University; University of Maryland-Baltimore; George Washington University; and Vanderbilt University. She was a Chairperson at the Department of Cardiovascular Pathology of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology from 1984 until 2004. Dr. Virmani is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and is a member of the American Heart Association, and the U.S. and Canadian Academy of Pathology. Dr. Virmani received her M.D. from Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi University, in New Delhi, India
RNA editing controls atherosclerosis
Stefanie Dimmeler, Frankfurt, Germany
Stefanie Dimmeler
Frankfurt, Germany
Dr. Dimmeler received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Konstanz/Germany. She then completed a fellowship in Experimental Surgery at the University of Cologne and in Molecular Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt. Since 2001 she is Professor of Experimental Medicine and since 2008 Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Center for Molecular Medicine at the University of Frankfurt. She received more than 17 awards. She presented the George E. Brown Memorial Lecture and the Paul Dudley White International Lecture at the Scientific Sessions of the AHA as well as the Thomas W. Smith Memorial Lecture and the Michael Oliver Memorial Lecture at the BAS Autumn Meeting. She received two ERC Advanced Investigator Grant. Her group elucidates the basic mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease and vessel growth with the aim to develop new cellular and pharmacological therapies for improving the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Ongoing research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms that control cardiovascular repair, specifically non-coding RNAs.
Defective inflammatory resolution in atherosclerosis: Mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities
Ira Tabas, New York, USA
Ira Tabas
New York, USA
Dr. Tabas, Richard J. Stock Professor of Medicine, Columbia University, completed his M.D./Ph.D. at Washington University and his clinical training at Columbia. His research has elucidated signaling pathways in macrophages that contribute to atherosclerosis and in hepatocytes that contribute to pro-atherogenic insulin resistance. His papers have appeared in Cell, Nature, Science, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Metabolism and other top journals, and he is on Science’s Board of Reviewing Editors. His awards include election to ASCI/AAP, AHA Established Investigator Award, Columbia University Lamport Research Award, AHA/ATVB Council Special Recognition Award, Washington University Alumni Achievement Award, the Society of Leukocyte Biology Bonazinga award, the Harrington Discovery Institute Innovator-Scholar Award, and the AHA Ross Lectureship Award.
Shifting concepts in the description of the "vulnerable plaque"
Gerard Pasterkamp, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Gerard Pasterkamp
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Gerard Pasterkamp, MD, is Professor of the laboratory of clinical chemistry at the University Medical Center Utrecht. His research interests are in the field of cardiovascular biology and innovation in biomarkers and drug targets to diagnose and treat atherosclerotic disease. The research group houses the largest atherosclerotic plaque biobank worldwide: Athero Express including >4500 patients. This biobank has generated new insights into determinants of plaque destabilisation. The laboratory also invests in the excavation of genetic determinants of atherosclerotic plaque characteristics. He has coordinated national and EU based consortia with the aim to unravel biomarkers and mechanisms of atherosclerotic disease.
May 8, 2018
STRATEGIES TO DETECT AND TREAT ATHEROSCLEROSIS
Atherothrombosis; from pathogenesis to treatment
Steffen Massberg, Munich, Germany
Steffen Massberg
Munich, Germany
Steffen Massberg is Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Department of Cardiology at the University Clinic Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Germany.
His basic-science research topics include stem-cell biology, platelet biology, mechanisms of arterial and venous thrombosis, immune-cell migration, immune-cell/coagulation crosstalk and bio-imaging (including 2-photon microscopy). He has written over 135 articles published in national and international peer-reviewed journals, including Blood, Nature Reviews Immunology, The Journal of Experimental Medicine and Circulation.
Professor Massberg is the co-ordinator and lead scientist of the European FP7 project PRESTIGE, the co-speaker and principal investigator of the DFG Collaborative Research Unit (SFB) 914 and the principal investigator of the DFG-Research Unit (FOR) 923. He has received many prizes for his work, the most recent being the 2011 Martin Villar Haemostasis Award (together with Dr Bernd Engelmann) and the 2012 Basic Science Award from the German Society of Cardiology (DGK).
Novel theraeutic approaches using antisense inhibition
Joseph Witztum, San Diego, USA
Joseph Witztum
San Diego, USA
Joseph L. Witztum, MD has worked in the field of lipoprotein metabolism and atherogenesis for almost forty years, and currently is Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. His basic work has provided an improved understanding of the role of oxidized LDL and immunological mechanisms in atherogenesis and clinically, he has promoted the development of novel therapies for unmet needs, especially in the context of hypertriglyceridemia and elevated Lp(a) levels. He has published more than 430 manuscripts and has been an Editor of major scientific journals in the field for the past 30 years.
Strategies to treat vulnerable plaques
David Erlinge, Lund, Sweden
David Erlinge
Lund, Sweden
David Erlinge received an MD at Lund University, Sweden 1990 followed by a PhD at the same university. He has been a visiting research fellow at Cornell Univ. Med. Coll., New York, NY. The clinical speciality is invasive cardiology (PCI). In 2006 he received the The Lars Werkö distinguished research fellowship and in 2008 he was appointed Professor in Cardiology at Lund University. The research is focused on acute coronary syndromes, platelet function and cardioprotection. He has written >240 original articles.
Imaging and CVD risk estimation (population studies)
Valentin Fuster, New York, USA
Valentin Fuster
New York, USA
Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D. is Director of Mount Sinai Heart, The Richard Gorlin, MD Heart Foundation, Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Physician-in-Chief, The Mount Sinai Hospital.
Valentin Fuster is a world-renowned cardiologist and a long-time global leader in the field of cardiovascular medicine having received the highest awards for research from the three leading cardiovascular organizations: AHA, ACC & ESC. Dr. Fuster has published more than 1,000 research studies and has been named Doctor Honoris Causa by thirty-six universities. He is a past President of the American Heart Association, past President of the World Heart Federation, Member of the US National Academy of Medicine, where he chaired the Committee for the document on “Promotion of Cardiovascular Health Worldwide”, presently Co-Chairs the Advisory Committee on “the Role of the United States on Global Health” as advisor to the US President, Member of the European Horizon 2020 Scientific Panel of Health, former Council member of the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Chairman of the Training Program of the American College of Cardiology.
