by Hannah Buckelew
Jianyi “Jay” Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, T. Michael Gillian Goodrich Endowed Chair of Engineering Leadership, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, recently delivered the North American Section of the International Society for Research (NAS-ISHR) Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture in Long Beach, California, on Friday, August 23. The title of his talk was, “Neonatal Heart Regeneration and Graft Associated Arrythmia in Large Mammals.” Previous recipients of the NAS-ISHR Lifetime Achievement Award include Eric N. Olson, Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Leslie Leinwand, Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder.
While there, Zhang moderated the session, titled, “Myocardial Contractile and Regulatory Proteins in Heart Disease.” Prasanna Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., Professor and Graduate Program Director, also in attendance, delivered the lecture, titled, “Cellular (Mis)Communication in Diabetic Heart Disease.”
Earlier in the week, Zhang attended the 2024 Cardiovascular Research Symposium at Stanford University; a joint annual retreat symposium for Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center, Morehouse School of Medicine, and UAB. On August 15, Dr. Zhang, alongside Anupam Agarwal, M.D., Senior Vice President for Medicine and Dean, Heersink School of Medicine, introduced the event via video recording. Victor Dzau, M.D., President of the National Academy of Medicine, delivered the opening keynote lecture.
Other leaders attended from the Heersink School of Medicine, including Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Women’s Reproductive Health and Nicole Lohr, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases.
Both faculty and undergraduates from the Department of Biomedical Engineering were in attendance. Manuel Rosa-Garrido, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, presented in the session, “Emerging Leaders in Medicine I.” Thanh Nguyen, Ph.D., Scientist I, presented, “Identifying ‘Cell Cycling’ Cardiomyocyte Subpopulations in Mouse and Pig from snRNAseq Data” in the session, “Emerging Leaders in Medicine II.” Zhang presented the lecture, “Neonatal Heart Regeneration and Graft Associated Arrythmia in Large Mammals” and Palaniappan Sethu, Ph.D., Professor, presented, “Tissue Chips Models of Cardiovascular Disease” both in the session, “Innovations in Tissue Engineering and Regeneration.” Yajing Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Director of Basic and Translational Research, presented “Macrophage Piezo1 Impairs Cardiac Recovery by Inhibiting Apoptotic Cardiomyocyte Clearance Post-Myocardial Infarction” in the session, “Cutting-edge Research in Vascular Biology and Disease.”