by Hannah Buckelew
Five faculty members and several trainees from the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), alongside others from the Department of Pathology and Cardiology, attended the annual Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Scientific Sessions in Chicago, Illinois July 22-25.
The Scientific Sessions is one of the largest meetings globally dedicated to fundamental and translational research in cardiovascular science. Leaders from fields such as cardiac gene and cell therapy, cardiac development, tissue engineering, iPS cells, and microRNAs among many others, attended to share recent research.
Jianyi "Jay" Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., presented groundbreaking cardiac repair research at the Scientific Sessions. In the video below, moderator Edward Thorp, Ph.D., and Zhang discuss several new developments that will help advance research in the field, including a novel optical approach examining arrhythmia in large hearts after iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte implantation, ongoing clinical trials, and new mRNA technology targeting cyclin pathways in cardiomyocytes, potentially "turning back the clock" on heart cells. Zhang also delivered the talk, titled, “Neonatal Heart Regeneration and Graft Associated Arrythmia in Large Mammals.”
Anteneh Woldemariam, a student in the laboratory of Yang Zhou, Ph.D., presented the poster, titled, “Heart-Specific Histone Methyltransferase SMYD1 Promotes Cardiac Matruation in the Direct Conversion of Human Fibroblasts into Cardiomyocytes.” Zhou, also in attendance, moderated the Cardiac Hypertrophy and Remodeling session.
Rajasekaran Namakkal-Soorappan, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Pathology, served as Vice Chair for the Asian Cardiovascular Sciences 2024 Symposium Cultural Event. He also served on the program committee for South Asian Heart Research (SAHR) 2024 as the immediate past chair and was awarded the Professional Prime Award by the SAHR.
Sini Sunny, Ph.D., a postdoctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Namakkal-Soorappan, presented the poster, titled, “Tandem Mass Tagging (TMT)-based Identification of Proteome Signatures for Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Swine.” The poster was co-authored with Drs. Namakkal-Soorappan and Zhang and was a finalist in the poster competition. Other BME faculty in attendance include Drs. Yajing Wang, Lei Ye and Jianli Zhou.
View the full poster presentations here and the meeting program here.
Department members look forward to attending the 2025 BCVS Scientific Sessions in Baltimore, Maryland.