This is a new application to support efforts to increase involvement of trainees and junior scientists for the 2019 Cardiovascular Bioengineering Symposium (CVBE) to be held on the campus of The University of Sydney, Australia. This will be the 4th Anniversary of the Symposium. The uniqueness of the CVBE symposium lies in its combination of top researchers in cardiovascular bioengineering, trainees, junior investigators, and underrepresented minorities. The symposium will provide a forum for trainees, junior and minority investigators to interact with world's leading scientists as they present their work. This work reflects the convergence of life sciences and engineering in the areas of gene editing, induced pluripotent stem cells, and cardiac stem cells in the context of heart failure as well general topics in cardiovascular bioengineering. This conference has previously been held separately from (but in conjunction with) the NIH NHLBI progenitor cell translational consortium (NIH PCTC) for the past 3 years1, 2, 3, 4 by The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The meeting became an annual public symposium in 2016, and since then, this conference has been recognized as a unique public and recurring scientific symposium of stem cell and cardiovascular bioengineering. The conference in recent 2 years has added translational topics as well as the ?bread and butter? of this meeting, which is basic stem cell bioengineering, molecular cardiovascular research, and tissue engineering. The conference has attracted the world's leading scientists in field of cardiac stem cells.1, 2, 3, 4 The original conference topics started with tissue engineering, hiPS cells, cardiac development, and recent two years has grown to include exosome, microRNAs, mitochondria, cardiac gene and cardiac cell therapy. The attendance of this conference has climbed and, in 2018, we had attendance of over 200. As in past years, the conference will be held in late February/early March, and this year, will be held March 1-2 at The University of Sydney. The planned agenda represents an ambitious, fast-paced meeting with 8 sessions in 1.5 days including the Keynote lecture. Young cardiovascular scientists will be highlighted through invited talks at each session. Organizers of this meeting are Drs. Jianyi (Jay) Zhang (UAB), James Chong (U of Sydney), Gangjian Qin (UAB), and Joel Berry (UAB). This proposal requests $10,000, and as we have done over the last several years, the support will be used towards the cost of trainee travel, trainee poster session awards, meeting supplies, and support for videotaping all sessions.
This annual meeting features scientific exchange at its highest level. 1, 2, 3, 4 It can accelerate discoveries pertinent to new therapies for heart disease, and create a phenomenal learning experience for junior scientists and trainees, optimizing future ROI in medical research by public dollars.
