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The Wihuri and Minerva Research Institutes arrange a virtual symposium this autumn.
It is our great pleasure to invite you to join the first session on
October 29th at 2:00 – 3:45 pm (UTC+2)
Professor Eldad Tzahor (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel):
Novel strategies for cardiac regeneration
Professor Martin R. Bennett (Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK):
Regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell senescence in atherosclerosis
Followed by a short talk by a short talk by:
Dr. Martina Lorey (Wihuri Research Institute, Helsinki, Finland):
Lipoprotein(a) induces inflammasome activation in macrophages
To join the seminar, please use this link: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/68954558671?pwd=TUdtYUpjZFlQdzJPUFhjNDJEU25OQT09
Speakers:
Eldad Tzahor, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Novel strategies for cardiac regeneration
Professor Tzahor studies cardiac regeneration in mammals with focus on the cardiac microenvironment as a means to improve the regenerative capacity of
the heart. He has revealed an important role for the tyrosine kinase receptor ERBB2 in cardiomyocyte proliferation and heart regeneration and found that transient overexpression of activated ERBB2 in adult cardiomyocytes is sufficient to trigger a robust regenerative
response in both acute and chronic cardiac injury settings. They have also discovered that the Agrin protein can induce the regeneration of the heart of mammals, and their studies examine the therapeutic effects of Agrin, whose administration in the injured
heart of pigs causes a significant regenerative response. These findings will have implications for the improvement of current strategies to treat heart disease in humans.
Selected recent publications:
Aharonov A, Shakked A, Umansky KB, Savidor A, Genzelinakh A, Kain D, Lendengolts D, Revach OY, Morikawa Y, Dong J, Levin Y, Geiger B, Martin JF, Tzahor E.
ERBB2 drives YAP activation and EMT-like processes during cardiac regeneration.
Nat Cell Biol. 2020 Oct 12. doi: 10.1038/s41556-020-00588-4.
Baehr A, Umansky KB, Bassat E, Jurisch V, Klett K, Bozoglu T, Hornaschewitz N, Solyanik O, Kain D, Ferraro B, Cohen-Rabi R, Krane M, Cyran C, Soehnlein O, Laugwitz KL, Hinkel R,
Kupatt C, Tzahor E. Agrin Promotes Coordinated Therapeutic Processes Leading to Improved Cardiac Repair in Pigs.
Circulation. 2020 Sep;142(9):868-881. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.045116.
Sarig R, Rimmer R, Bassat E, Zhang L, Umansky KB, Lendengolts D, Perlmoter G, Yaniv K, Tzahor E. Transient p53-Mediated Regenerative Senescence in the Injured Heart.
Circulation. 2019 May 21;139(21):2491-2494. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.040125.
Martin
R Bennett, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK
Regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell senescence in atherosclerosis
Professor Bennett studies the mechanisms underlying vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and survival, and their defects in disease. His research group has identified the triggers
and protective pathways regulating VSMC senescence, its consequences, and its role in vascular disease. The research group’s clinical studies use intracoronary imaging and optical coherence tomography together with biomechanics to determine the types and composition
of plaques, the stresses on vulnerable plaques, and whether they predict plaque rupture.
Selected recent publications:
Shah, A, Gray, K, Figg, NL, Finigan, A, Starks, L, Bennett, MR. Defective base excision repair of oxidative DNA damage in vascular smooth muscle cells promotes
atherosclerosis. Circulation 2018. 138:1446–1462. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.033249
Dobnikar, L, Taylor, AL, Chappell, J, Oldach, P, Harman, JL, Oerton, E, Dzierzak, E, Bennett, MR, Spivakov, M, Jørgensen, HF. Disease-relevant transcriptional signatures identified
in individual smooth muscle cells from healthy vessels. Nature Comms 2018. 9:4567
Costopoulos, C, Timmins, LH, Huang, Y, Hung, OY, Molony, DS, Brown, AJ, Davis, EL, Teng, Z, Gillard, JH, Samady, H, Bennett, MR. Impact of combined plaque structural stress and
wall shear stress on coronary plaque progression, regression and changes in composition. Eur Heart J. 2019. 40: 1411-22
Dr.
Martina Lorey, Wihuri Research Institute, Helsinki, Finland
Lipoprotein (a) induces inflammasome activation in macrophages
Dr. Lorey is a post-doctoral research at the Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory, Wihuri Research Institute. Her research focuses on the proinflammatory properties
of lipoprotein particles