-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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=TUdtYUpjZFlQdzJPUFhjNDJEU25OQT09https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhelsinki.zoom.us%2Fj%2F68954558671%3Fpwd%3DTUdtYUpjZFlQdzJPUFhjNDJEU25OQT09&data=04%7C01%7Claura.fellman%40wri.fi%7Cc8f7b5e0d9a3489e289208d875b44086%7Ca08f7aa6cf2c453bb81c1b34fbd646ce%7C0%7C0%7C637388764339321371%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=JRZNeSELNqBCoOJT%2FyIKrTCpfhzaDPzlwVS%2B7NFdMws%3D&reserved=0

Speakers: [cid:image006.jpg@01D6A872.93EEFEE0] 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.

[Professor Martin Bennett]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

[cid:image009.jpg@01D6A872.93EEFEE0]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