Clinical Instructor/Cardiology Fellow, Department of Cardiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, 1989-1992. Director of Nuclear Cardiology and Lipid Research, the Center for Clinical Cardiology & Research, Iowa, 1992–1995. Development Effort of a Nuclear Technologist Program for Methodist College, Omaha, NE, with Pat Sullivan, July 1998-April 1999. Clinical Service Association, Department of Cardiology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, 1999-2004. The Fleming Heart & Health Institute, Omaha, NE, 1999-2004. Veterans Administration Health Care System, February 2005 - Present. Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System, Biloxi, MS, 2005-2007. VA Central Iowa Health Care System, Des Moines, IA, 2005-2008. VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System, Reno, NV, 2005-2007. Exercise Stress Testing Certification Director for IM Residents, 2005-2007. Electrocardiogram Conference Director for IM Residents, Morning Report, 2006-2007. Nuclear Cardiology Reviewer, January 2006-2007. Physician Services Contractor - Inspecting Military Medical Facilities, 2007. Cardiologist, Cardiovascular Institute of Southern Missouri, Poplar Bluff, MO, 2008-2009. Cardiology Consultant. Reno, NV. 2005-Present.

Cardiology, Radiation Oncology, Physics

James D. Fett, MD, MPH, has worked on peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) issues for over 25 years, having been introduced to the condition in Haiti, in 1984. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in numerous medical journals (see Bibliography attached). He has presented PPCM-related abstracts at several Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, and made PPCM-related presentations as well as chairing sections at the 2009 Annual International Congress of Cardiology in Shanghai, China, in 2009; at the 1st International Congress on Cardiac Problems in Pregnancy in Valencia, Spain, in 2010; as well as at the 2nd International Congress on Cardiac Problems in Pregnancy in Berlin, Germany, in 2012. He currently serves as Consultant, Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Network of North America (PCN) and as Co-Chairman, Investigations in Pregnancy Associated Cardiomyopathy (IPAC) Study, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Early Biographical Data: Born in Campbell, Minnesota, USA 26 August 1934 Campbell Public School, 1-12. Education/Training: University of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, SD, BA Chemistry, 1952-55. University of Minnesota/University of Minnesota Medical School, MD, 1955-60. University Minnesota School Public Health, MPH, 1962/63. Institute Tropical Medicine, Antwerpen, Belgium, 1963/64. Kansas City General Hospital, Rotating Internship 1960/61. Lafayette Charity Hospital, Family Practice Residency 1961/62. Abbott Northwestern Hospital, U MN, Internal Medicine Residency, 1968-/70/72. Certification: American Board Internal Medicine, 1970/1973/1980 (lifetime). Professional Experience: Staff Physician, Vanga Hospital, Democratic Republic Congo, 1963-68. Staff Internist, Director School Public Health, Vanga Hospital, Zaire, 1970-72. Staff Internist, Medical Associates Clinic, Pierre, SD, 1973-75. Staff Internist, Clinical Director, Indian Health Service, Rapid City, SD, 1975-80. Chief Medical Officer, Bemidji Area Indian Health Service, 1980-83. Staff Internist, Clinical Director, Indian Health Service, White Earth, MN 1983-84. Medical Director, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Deschapelles, Haiti, 1984-86. Staff Internist, Clinical Director, Indian Health Service, White Earth, MN 1986-93. Staff Internist, Medical Director, Quinault Clinic, Taholah, WA 1993-97. Principal Investigator, Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Project, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Deschapelles, Haiti, 1997 – present. Consultant, Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Network Co-Chairman, Investigations in Pregnancy Associated Cardiomyopathy (IPAC) Study, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (http://www.peripartumcmnetwork.pitt.edu)

Cardiovascular Disease in Women

Paraskevi Theofilou has received her PhD at Panteion University during the period of 2010. Currently, she is working as a research fellow at Panteion University. She has successfully completed her Administrative responsibilities as Head of Personnel Department at Sotiria General Hospital. She is serving as an editorial member of several reputed journals like Frontiers in Psychology for Clinical Settings, Europe Journal of Psychology, International Journal of Biomedicine, World Journal of Urology.

Psychosocial processes, outcomes and quality of life in chronic illness with particular emphasis on chronic kidney disease, dialysis and renal transplantation, Self management interventions for patients with chronic illness, Palliative care in severe chronic disease

Frink is the Principal Investigator of the Heart Research Foundation of Sacramento. He received his training at the University of Iowa, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He practiced invasive cardiology in Sacramento, California for 35 years and established a laboratory to study the post-mortem heart. He has published approximately 25 research papers and a book, Inflammatory Atherosclerosis: Characteristics of the Injurious Agent, detailing the pathologic findings in patients who died of acute coronary disease. The primary focus of his work has been the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and the mechanism responsible for sudden cardiac death.

The primary focus of his work has been the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and the mechanism responsible for sudden cardiac death.

Xiaoping Ren received his M.D in Harbin Medical University in 1984. He performed his Clinical and Research Hand Fellowship training in University of Louisville in Kentucky (1996-2000). During the period, Ren created a feasibility large animal CTA model for limb transplantation to allow modulation of the immune reaction and to investigate immunosuppressant. The Nation\'s First Hand Transplantation in US was successfully conducted as a direct result of the preclinical swine composite tissue allotransplantation model (CTA). He joined the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine as faculty member in 2001, then appointed Assistant professor and Associate Professor. As well as CTA, another focus of his research program is to understand molecular and neuronal basis of non-ischemic nociceptor-induced cardioprotection. In UC. These studies were published in the Journal of Surgical Research and in Circulation. Ren has had over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Currently, he is holding active Memberships of the American Association for Hand Surgery and the American Heart Association. He also service as peer-reviewer of several journals.

Hand and Microsurgery, and research interesting on developing cardioprotective strategies against ischemia/reperfusion injury and CAT model that has led first successful hand transplantation. Currently, focusing on develop AHBR biological model

Ryuichi Morishita has received his PhD in Osaka University during the period of April 1, 1987 to March 31, 1991. Currently, he is working as a Department of Clinical Gene Therapy in Osaka University. He has successfully completed his Administrative responsibilities as Chief of Department of Clinical Gene Therapy. He is serving as an editorial member of several reputed journals like Editor-in-Chief in The Open Gene Therapy Journal (2008-), Immunology, Endocrine and Metabolic Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (2011-), World Journal of Hypertension (2011-), in addition to a member of the Editorial Board in Circulation, ATVB, Hypertension and others. He has authored over 450 research articles/books. He is a member of Board in Japan Society of Vascular Biology Organization, Society for Intellectual Property, Japan Society of Anti-Aging, Japan Society of Gene Therapy, and Japan Society of Venture. He has honored over 20 academic awards including Invitrogen-Nature-Biotechnology Award.

Hypertension, cardiovascular disease, gene therapy, angiotensin, vascular biology

Anastasia Susie Mihailidou is a cardiovascular clinical scientist, graduating with a PhD in Pharmacology from University of Sydney in 1988. She is currently Clinical Senior Lecturer for Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney and Senior Hospital Scientist at Royal North Shore Hospital. Anastasia has both clinical and basic research interests as Director of the Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Service for a major Tertiary Referral Centre and Head of the Cardiovascular & Hormonal Research Laboratory. Her research focus is regulation of aldosterone/mineralocorticoid receptors in the heart and has made a significant contribution to understanding the role of corticosteroid hormones (and antagonists). She was the first to show aldosterone has both rapid and sustained effects on regulation of sodium transport in the heart, with increased levels of intracellular sodium. These findings have generated great interest, leading to award of the Pfizer Prize for Best Research at the International Society of Hypertension (2002). Her current research focus is to determine the role of aldosterone and mineralocorticoid receptors in diabetes

Her research focus is regulation of aldosterone/mineralocorticoid receptors in the heart and has made a significant contribution to understanding the role of corticosteroid hormones (and antagonists)

Medical School:Hahnemann University School of Medicine; Internship:Hahnemann University School of Medicine; Residency:Hahnemann University School of Medicine; Affiliations: Bryn Mawr Hospital - On staff since 2003; Lankenau Medical Center - On staff since 2003; Paoli Hospital -On Staff since 2003; Academic Titles:Clinical Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery - Lankenau Medical Center; Clinical/Dept Titles: Surgical Director of Heart Failure, Lankenau Medical Center; Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Paoli Hospital

Cardiothoracic Surgery

Graduated in Medicine - Cordoba National University, Argentina (1972); Residency in General Surgery - Cordoba Hospital, Argentina, (1973-1974); Thoracic Surgery Residency - Cordoba Hospital, Argentina (1974-1976); Specialization Course in Cardiovascular Surgery - University of Sao Paulo - Brazil (1977 - 1985), as assistant Professor. E. J. Zerbini. Specialist in Cardiovascular Surgery at the Brazilian Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (1982); Masters (1986-1987), PhD (1988-1991) and Full Professor (1988) at Sao Paulo Federal University. Visiting Professor to the service of Prof. De Leval, at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London (1987), sharing the experience with technique of cavopulmonary shunt (bidirectional Glenn and tunnel VCI - APD), instead of atriopulmonary (Fontan operation), for the treatment of univentricular heart; Introducing this technique at UNIFESP, since 1990, being the first center in Brazil using routine technique Bidirectional Glenn and Tunnel VCI - APD; subsequently adopted by the Pediatric Heart Surgery services by all over the world, with significant reduction in mortality. Right Ventricle remodeling technique using four own models of porcine pulmonary prosthesis for surgical correction of Congenital Heart Disease with obstruction of the pulmonary outlet tract. Implementation of the modified technique of ultra filtration after CPB and in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, developed by Prof. M. Elliott, at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London (1995), used in neonates and infants with complex congenital heart disease, underwent surgical correction at UNIFESP, since 1996. Visiting Professor to the Service of Pediatric Heart Surgery: Great Ormond Street Hospital - London (Prof. M. de Leval) (1987); Herefield Hospital - London (Prof. M. Yacoub) (1987); Hospital Bichat - Paris (Prof. U. Hvass) (1987); Royal Brompton Hospital - London (Prof. C. Lincoln) (1992), Loma Linda - University of California - USA (Prof. L. Bailey) (1995); University of California ( UCLA), USA (Prof.H. Laks) (1996)

Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Pediatric Cardiac Prosthesis, Research of new materials for cardiac prosthesis

Jodi Tinkel completed her medical training at the University of Toledo Medical center and is currently an assistant professor and invasive cardiologist at UT. She is the medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and has research interests in ischemic preconditioning, platelet activation, cardiac imaging and plaque stability.

Ischemic preconditioning, platelet activation, cardiac imaging and plaque stability

Heng graduated from the University of Singapore and had specialty and subspecialty clinical training in New Zealand. His research training was done in New Zealand and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (affiliated with UCLA). Heng is Clinical Professor of Medicine in UCLA, and has authored or coauthored over 150 original publications, abstracts and book chapters. Heng was Chief of Cardiology of the UCLA San Fernando Medicine Program for over 10 years, and is currently in private cardiology consultation practice.

Cardiology

Dudley completed his M.D. and Ph.D. at the age of 26 years from the Medical College of Virginia. Dudley is a Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently, he is an Editorial Board member for JACC and a member of the Association of University Cardiologists and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His research program focuses on mechanisms and treatments of arrhythmia and diastolic heart failure. He has published more than 80 articles and chapters and has submitted more than 15 patent applications on new therapeutics in these areas.

Cardiology

I have been working at St. Lukes since 2004 as an intern, resident and fellow and now as an EP fellow. During my residency program I assisted Eyal Herzog in creating many of our novel pathways for the management of cardiac patients. In 2006 I started the ACAP program Advanced cardiac Admission Program, which included 6 state of the art novel pathways for the management of Chest pain, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hyperglycemia in the CCU, Syncope and hypertension, including developing a hospital wide database, with patient follow-ups. We were able to change the culture in SL to comply with all published guidelines and close the existing gap in practice. These databases served as a cornerstone for research, resulting in more than 82-presented abstracts and 25 published manuscripts. In conjunction with the ACAP databases, I also started an ACAP Volunteer group comprised of multiple internal medicine residents, pre-medical and medical students from (Columbia University, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, Touro College, and Hunter college) as well as FMG\'s who are seeking residencies in the United States about 60 members. All were instrumental in implementing, managing and data collection. Recently, we have published TWO new pathways; ESCAPE Pathway for Sudden Cardiac Death Prevention and MOCHA Pathway for the Management of Survivors of Out of the Hospital Cardiac Arrest both were contributory in increase awareness of sudden cardiac death, referral for ICD implantation and favorable outcome for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Electrophysiology has been a passion of mine for the longest time, dating back from my early years in medicine in Egypt during my Interventional cardiology years. Of course I feel that my training at St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital has given me enough versatility, experience and capability in clinical as well as in research aspects yielding a very competent electrophysiologist

My major interests are focused in atrial fibrillation ablation, syncope research and management developed the SELF and ESCAPE pathways for the management of syncope and the role of ILR in management, ventricular tachycardia ablation in particular ventricular premature complex research and their detrimental effect on ejection fraction, and advanced heart failure device therapies. One of the new and exciting Electrophysiology procedures that I had the privilege to train and perform in is lead extraction using the Spectranetics Laser Sheath; my intention is to establish a state of the art lead extraction program.

Maciej Banach was an Undersecretary of State at Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Republic of Poland (2010-2012). He is Professor at Medical University of Lodz, Head of Foreign Affairs Office and Head of Department of Hypertension at Medical University of Lodz and an Associate Professor in the Department of Nephrology, Hypertension and Family Medicine, Chair of Nephrology and Hypertension, at WAM University Hospital in Lodz, Poland. He is a Head of Polish Lipid Association (PoLA) and Lodz Chapter of Polish Society of Hypertension. Banach has published more than 400 original articles, reviews, editorials, and book chapters in the field of hypertension, dyslipidemias, cardiology, cardiac surgery, and risk stratification. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Archives of Medical Science (IF=1.199) and Cardiovascular Continuum, Deputy Editor of Thyroid Research and Clinical and Experimental Medical Letters and member of Editorial Advisory Board of numerous international medical journals such as Angiology, Medical Science Monitor and Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy. He is editor or author of over 20 books. He is a fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of American Heart Association (FAHA), National Lipid Association (FNLA), American Society of Angiology (FASA), European Society of Cardiology (FESC), Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH) and Society of Geriatric Cardiology (FSGC; 2008-2010). He is a member of working-core of Alliance for Biomedical Research/European Council for Health Research and steering committee of European Innovation Partnership in Active and Healthy Ageingat European Commission (Brussels).

Area of scientific interests: hypertension (optimal level of BP - J-curve phenomenon, pharmacotherapy/combined therapy, complications), lipid disorders, dyslipidemia therapy (with statins, combined treatment), new drugs in CVD therapy, risk stratification

Shiyou Chen has completed his PhD from Nanjing Agricultural University in China and postdoctoral studies from University of Iowa School of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. He is an Associate Professor in the department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Georgia. He has published more than 40 papers in reputed journals and serving as a reviewer for several reputed scientific journals and grant agencies.

Paras Kumar Mishra did BSc and MS in Biological science with specialization in Zoology from India. The dissertation was from Banaras Hindu University (a reputed university in India) on understanding the genetic basis of speciation. His postdoctoral works were basically on cardiac physiology from USA. As a faculty, the major focus of their research is to understand how heart undergoes structural and functional remodeling especially in diabetes, how it is regulated by specific microRNA (miR). He was also interested in investigating the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in heart failure. Their recent results revealed that MMP9 and miR-133 plays pivotal role in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Since, the role of ECM stiffness has been unequivocal in stem cell apoptosis, They are interested to investigate the mechanism of ECM mediated cardiac progenitor cell apoptosis / impairment of differentiation in diabetes. The long term goal of research is to discover an intervention tool to improve cardiac function in pathological heart using microRNAs and stem cells.

The structural and functional remodelling in heart is regulated by micro RNAs (miRNAs) - tiny, conserved, non-coding regulatory RNAs that have been recently emerged as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for cardiovascular and several other diseases. My research work focuses on finding the candidate miRNAs involved in heart failure especially diabetic cardiomyopathy and using them for ameliorating the pathological conditions. Additionally, I am also investigating the key factors associated with heart failure such as elevation in homocysteine level, degradation of extracellular matrix, decrease in tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs), impairment of sympathetic tone and contractile function of cardiomyocytes using in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro approaches.

G. Chandramohan has completed his Ph.D at the age of 28 years from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India and now he is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During his doctoral program, he has isolated a novel antidiabetic compound from the south Indian medicinal plant and he has patented his invention and patent was granted recently by IPR, India (Patent Grant No. 243139). Senior Research Fellowship and University Research Studentship have been awarded for his doctoral research by Indian Council of Medical Research and Annamalai University respectively. G.Chandramohan is very active in participation in scientific meeting in abroad an example of these activities; International Conference on Diabetes & Metabolism\" on 13-14 December 2010, California, US; \"Experimental Biology 2011\" on 9-13th December, 2011, Washington, USA; Symposium of \"The Use of Zinc Finger Nucleases for the Development of Next Generation Cell Lines and Animal Models\" Heidelberg, Germany” on 5th December 2011; \"2nd World Congress on Diabetes & Metabolism\" on 6-8th December 2011, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and \"World Nutrition Rio 2012\" on 27th-30th April 2012, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil etc. He has also served as a Session Chair Person and organizing committee member for the \"Ist International conference on Diabetes & Metabolism\" was held in California, USA (2010) and \"2nd World Congress on Diabetes & Metabolism\" was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (2011) respectively. He has published a good number of papers in reputed journals. He is serving as an editorial board member and reviewer in reputed journals. He is also evaluator for the Indian government scientific projects. Recently, he has completed two major research projects on \"Role of camel milk in diabetes mellitus & Morin, a flavonoid on myocardial infarction\".

Shahzad is currently affiliated with the University of Vienna, Austria. Shahzad is one of the pioneers, working for the progress of translational medicine field. He is serving as a secretary general and director of administration for \"International society for translational medicine (ISTM)\" He is serving as visiting professor of translational medicine, at the First Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China. He is also appointed as associate professor of translational medicine (Adj), at the First Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical College, China. Shahzad has won many prestigious international fellowships and awards. Shahzad is invited speaker for many international life sciences conferences.

Translational Research and Clinical Diagnostics

Yin is famous translational cardiology scientist. Dr. Yin is working as a Professor of Cardiology at \'The First Affiliated Hospital\' of \'Harbin Medical University\', Harbin, China. Her research interests are mainly focused on the mechanisms of heart failure and the gene therapy of restenosis after percutanous coronary intervention. She is one of the editorial board members for Translational Bio medicine Journal and Molecular Medicine & Therapeutics (MMT) Journal.

Cardiology

Qiangjun Cai is a cardiologist in University of Texas Medical Branch. He received medical degree in China and finished internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training in the United States

He is interested in both basic science and clinical cardiology research

Jun Wang Joined the Texas Heart Institute in the Nov. of 2009 as a Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator. Previously, he worked as a non-tenure track Assistant Professor at the Institute of Bio-sciences and Technology at the Texas A&M Health Science Center for over three years. With the grants from American Heart Association and National Institutes of Health, he is studying the role of small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins in cardiovascular development and diseases, particularly in the congenital cardiac defects and cardiac muscle disorders. Wang obtained his Ph.D. in the medical science from Shanghai Second Medical University in the People\'s Republic of China.

Birth defects are a global problem that affects approximately 6% of births worldwide. Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are the most common of all congenital birth defects, occurring in 0.5-1.2% of newborn. One of the focuses of my lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying CHDs associated with a deficient SUMO conjugation pathway. Sumoylation is a posttranslational modification in which SUMO proteins can be covalently conjugated to the target proteins via an ATP-dependent enzymatic cascade that requires the heterodimeric activating enzyme (E1), SAE1 and SAE2, and conjugation enzyme E2), Ubc9, which is the lone E2 so far identified in mammalian cells. The presence of E3 ligases, represented by protein inhibitors of activated STAT (PIAS) proteins, stimulates the efficiency of SUMO conjugation and promotes the formation of poly-SUMO chain. The functional consequences of sumoylation are quite diverse and substrate/context specific; SUMO modification may increase, decrease, or exert no detectable effects on the activity of a given substrate. The molecular and cellular approaches combined with genetically modified murine models are used to investigate the regulation of cardiac development by SUMO conjugation pathway.

Oudit is a Cardiologist and a Clinician-Scientist at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, University of Alberta. Oudit\'s research is focused on the pathophysiology and molecular biology of heart failure, vascular disease and kidney disease. We are studying the role of various signaling pathways in heart failure including the different PI3K isoforms, Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Apelin peptides and they downstream signaling pathways. They are also exploring the basis of cardiac toxicity of novel anti-cancer drugs which are known to block PI3K signaling.

Pathophysiology and molecular biology of heart failure, vascular disease and kidney disease

G. K. Pal has completed his MBBS and MD degrees at the age of 26 years from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), the premier medical institute of India. He is presently the Professor of Medical Physiology at JIPMER. He has 26 years of teaching and research experience in Physiology and he has guided many PhD and MD students. He has published 78 research papers in reputed medical journals. His areas of research interest are obesity, hypertension and yoga. Currently, he is actively involved in hypertension research. Pal has received 15 National Research Awards from various scientific bodies of India. Pal is presently the Chief of Central Workshop of JIPMER Hospital and Biomedical Engineering Division of JIPMER. Pal was Editor-in-Chief of the journal \'Biomedicine\' from 2006 to 2009, and now he is the Editor of Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology since 2009. Prof. Pal is an expert reviewer for many International journals.