Cardiovascular Center of Excellence Sees Success With Translational Research Event

In order to support the translational research mission of the UC College of Medicine and the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence (CvCOE) as well as to bring both cardiac caregivers and basic researchers together for potential collaboration, the CvCOE held a Translational Research Day, titled "Bridging the Lab and the Clinic," on Tuesday, Oct. 11.

About 150 attendees—half scientists, half clinicians—were present for the day’s events, which included three main information sessions, highlighting various cardiovascular-related research projects, and ended with a poster presentation which included research from 48 young trainees and a wine and cheese reception.

Neal Weintraub, MD, Mabel Stearns Stonehill Chair of Cardiology, chief of the division of cardiovascular diseases and co-director of the CvCOE along with Litsa Kranias, PhD, says the goal of the event was to encourage interaction between clinicians and basic scientists in the field. The outcome was successful, he says.

"A number of rousing talks were delivered by our scientists and clinical faculty that highlighted the cutting-edge work within cardiovascular sciences at UC,” he says. "I saw many clinicians asking questions of basic scientists’ work and vice versa. I think that there was consistent interest among colleagues and a true meeting of the minds.

"We expect to do this annually and expand our reach to other departments. This event truly served its purpose of getting people to communicate and hopefully collaborate more closely in the future.”

Four prizes—two first-place ties and two second-place ties—were awarded for the poster presentations. Winners were:

·         First Place: Bin Yu, PhD, in the lab of Meifeng Xu, PhD, associate professor of  pathology and laboratory medicine, and Nathan Robbins in the lab of Jack Rubinstein, MD, assistant professor in the division of cardiovascular diseases and a UC Health cardiologist. Both received $300 and a certificate.

·         Second Place: Stela Florea, PhD, in the lab of Litsa Kranias, PhD, professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics, and Xiaowei Zhang, PhD, in the lab of Guo-Chang Fan, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics. Both received $200 and a certificate.

"We had fantastic clinical and basic science talks, and the speakers generated a good amount of excitement and cross-talk focused on the translation of our research findings to meet clinical needs,” says Keith Jones, PhD, professor in the department of pharmacology and cell biophysics. "Reciprocally, the basic scientists learned of the clinical challenges, and clinical needs were identified that we hope will provoke new translational science projects.

"All in all, this meeting exemplifies the goals of the CVCoE—to support basic, translational and clinical research and to enhance interactions between basic scientists and clinicians in order to maximize the potential for development of new therapeutics from our research. In the long run, this is the path to development of new therapies that will allow the clinicians to provide better care."