Emerging Opportunities in Cardiovascular Disease - PROJECT SUMMARY
We request support for the Annual Summer 2020 Symposium “Emerging Opportunities in Cardiovascular
Diseases” of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Council (BCVS) of the American Heart Association
(AHA). The BCVS Scientific Sessions annual scientific conference has been partially supported by the NHLBI
since 2005. Ongoing support from NHLBI has helped make this meeting the “go to” conference for cardiovascular
biology and disease. The conference will be held from July 27 to 30, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois at the Chicago
Hilton. The program co-chairs are Drs. Sakthivel Sadayappan (University of Cincinnati), Loren Wold (Ohio
State), and Jil Tardiff (University of Arizona), all of whom have been working closely with the BCVS Chair
(myself, Joseph C. Wu, Stanford) and their Program Committee to plan and execute this important conference.
The Specific Aims for this conference are to: 1) Showcase the frontiers of basic and translational cardiovascular
science, 2) Enhance collaborations among investigators with diverse geographic locations, disciplines, and
career stages, 3) Catalyze new ideas and research directions, 4) Inspire the next generation of researchers. The
agenda represents an exciting meeting with more than thirty sessions presented over 4 days, including a
Keynote by Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer, MD, DPhil, FAHA, FACC (Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine,
University of Texas Health, McGovern Medical School), whose research program bridges basic research with
clinical studies. Young investigators and other trainee cardiovascular scientists will be highlighted through invited
talks occurring in each session and at poster presentations. The conference will have more than 35% women
faculty, reflecting our commitment to improve gender balance among speakers. We are also offering family care
to facilitate attendance for all members. Finally, novel aspects of the meeting will be three workshops focused
on i) honesty, transparency, and early career funding opportunities, ii) statistical analysis for grants and papers,
and iii) advanced methods in metabolism. The budget requested in this application constitutes approximately
7% of the total meeting budget. Support gained by this application will be used exclusively to fund fifteen
Cardiovascular Outreach Awards and forty-five Young Investigator Awards.
