Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine Conference 2026 - ABSTRACT: The Councils on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) and Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) of the American Heart Association (AHA) hold an annual Spring Meeting “Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine,” the most recent of which was held in held April 22-25, 2025 at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront in Baltimore, MD. This meeting was a resounding success with 741 attendees and about 350 abstracts submitted. Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, with an outstanding 90% rating for “likelihood to recommend” the conference to others. These encouraging statistics provide tangible evidence of the broad interest and commitment of the scientific community in the topic areas of ATVB, PVD and vascular medicine and the overwhelming enthusiasm for the format and atmosphere of this leading meeting. This meeting uniquely brings together basic scientists, translational researchers and clinicians, seasoned investigators and early career scientists, who attend this meeting to share and learn cutting-edge vascular science and network with researchers across disciplines. The meeting is large enough to attract world-class speakers with a diversity of backgrounds and expertise, while still facilitating ease of critical networking interactions that forge new insights and collaborations. This conference includes world- leading Plenary, Keynote, and Distinguished Speakers on the most exciting cutting-edge topics in cardiovascular disease. Concurrent sessions feature outstanding invited faculty speakers from around the world, as well as short talks selected from submitted abstracts addressing topics including atherosclerosis, cardiometabolic disease, lipoproteins, inflammation and immunity, thrombosis and coagulation, coronary and peripheral vascular disease, genomics, and translational therapies. The next Vascular Discovery conference is scheduled to be held in Bellevue, WA, on May 13-16, 2026. This proposal requests support for our young investigator merit-based Travel Awards, to facilitate attendance by early career attendees. A major emphasis of our annual conference is to encourage the active involvement of early-stage investigators to help develop, train, and inspire the next generation of vascular researchers. This meeting provides trainees and new faculty with ample opportunities to present talks and posters, including numerous prestigious award competitions, and to participate in extensive career development programming. Our Young Investigator Travel Awards have been supported by the NIH/NHLBI for 17 years. These awards are an integral part of our strategy to recruit, retain and actively engage young investigators in the fields of arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, vascular biology and vascular medicine research that are of major importance to the NIH-NHLBI and the health of the U.S. population.
