Joint Symposium Weaves Bioengineering Seamlessly with Cardiovascular Nanomedicine

Featured Guest speakers include Victor J. Dzau, MD, President, National Academy of Medicine; Joseph A. Hill, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, Circulation; and Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD, FAHA, President, American Heart Association, will contribute their perspectives, as well as leading scientists, engineers and clinician-investigators in cardiovascular cell therapy, gene editing, mRNA therapeutics, bioengineering and nanomedicine. In addition to exceptional speakers, the symposium is also hosting a Cardiovascular Nanomedicine “Shark Tank™” competition at The New Frontier of RNA Nanotherapeutics conference on May 25. Three research teams will be selected to pitch their innovative ideas in the field of cardiovascular nanomedicine to a panel of judges. Each team will have five minutes to present, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Criteria include innovation that solves a cardiovascular problem with enough preliminary data to demonstrate feasibility, and a target product profile and plan for clinical development. The judges (Sharks) will vote on the winning project deemed, “the most likely to be translated to clinic.” This year’s joint symposium is an intentional program that weaves bioengineering seamlessly with cardiovascular nanomedicine for a cohesive and informative meeting. This allows cultivation of relationships between people in different fields who wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to meet at more traditional conferences. “In addition to networking with world renowned researchers and physicians, it’s an exciting opportunity for researchers to meet and receive feedback from those in the funding trenches to learn what types of projects that are of interest or those they would like to see come across their desk,” said Elizabeth Davis, PhD, Associate Research Professor in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and one of the coordinators of the symposium.